Sears seems like it faded away long ago

People woke up Monday to the news reports about Sears filing for bankruptcy. And not the kind that allows a company to skip out on its debts while restructuring itself so it can stay alive.

Sears was Amazon.com before Amazon.com existed

No, it seems like this may be the end for the historic retail giant that has been with us for 125 years, and for many of them was a dominant presence in terms of where we all shopped for goods.

EVEN IF YOU didn’t have a Sears store nearby, there was always the Sears catalog. Which in rural parts of the nation was a dominant presence. It really isn’t a stretch to say that Amazon.com was the same basic business model as Sears – except they use the Internet to make goods available, while Sears went to the expense of publishing hard-copies of catalogs advertising their goods.

But Sears most definitely is a part of the past!

One that I suspect most of us won’t mourn in the least. Unless you happen to think like my step-mother, whose reaction to hearing the news would be to wonder what kind of bargains would be available at the inevitable “Going Out of Business!” sale.

I don’t doubt there are some other people who will have the same reaction. Although I have to confess to being confused, since there have been so many cutbacks and reductions in recent years by Sears to try to buy more time for the company to survive that I don’t even know where there is a Sears store anywhere near where I’m living these days.

Sears stores of my youth … 

I KNOW WHERE all the Sears locations within Chicago proper were. As in “used to be.” We don’t have Sears any longer in the Second City that was the corporate headquarters to the one-time retail giant.

Even many of the suburban locations have long-since closed.

Personally, I might be inclined to want to take a trip to the Sears store where my family often shopped when I was a child, which was the Sears that was an anchor to the River Oaks shopping mall in suburban Calumet City.

Except that store closed some five years ago. I’ve heard countless schemes and proposals for how the city wishes to reuse the building, but none of them have managed to come about.

… are already long-gone from the retail scene

ON THOSE OCCASIONS when I happen to be in the area and drive by it, I see a huge vacant structure begging either for a new tenant or for someone to come along and tag it with graffiti. Of which I fear the latter is the option more likely to occur.

The Sears I remember of my childhood was a place where one could purchase just about anything. A “One-Stop Shop” for all of life’s needs.

But then, our society’s desires changed. Perhaps we think we outgrew Sears. Or perhaps some of us wanted the impression of purchasing higher-quality merchandise and were willing to pay a premium for it.

Although I suspect the majority of us were more interested in finding the financial bargains they could find shopping elsewhere. Just as those old neighborhood retail shops are gone because someone else could provide similar goods cheaper, Sears also got undone by the same basic premise.

The original Sears corporate complex

AFTER ALL, IT would cost a lot of money to keep a fully-staffed store with many departments – including many with specialty salespeople who actually understand their product.

From a business end, it’s cheaper to have the big-box model staffed with retail clerks who know nothing and provide next-to-no service or assistance. Something to keep in mind the next time you shop there and can’t get anybody to help you. You’re getting what you pay for.

The 'tower' no longer caries Sears brand name

Some of us will mourn the memory of Sears. We’ll stubbornly insist on using the Sears moniker to ID the building bought by the Willis Group. But then we ought to think of just when was the last time we bought anything from one of their stores?

In my case, I can’t even remember. I suspect I’m not alone. That’s why they’re soon-to-be no more.

  -30-

How times change, and not just because more Sears, Kmart stores are closing

Earlier this year, the City Council placed a series of referenda on the ballot for the upcoming elections Nov. 6 – including one measure concerning the continued use of plastic straws within the city.

Soon to be obsolete

How ridiculous, many of us quipped. How absurd. Many of us figured it was purely a political move so as to knock more legitimate issues that politicos would prefer not to address off the ballot altogether.

BUT THERE ARE those people who look at all those straws one uses every time they attend a restaurant. Those plastic tubes allowing you to sip your drink, then throw them away.

Where they will wind up in a landfill somewhere, forevermore adding to the planet’s pollution (or at least several hundred years until they finally decompose into nothingness).

That issue popped into my head Thursday when I stumbled across a story concerning the Kroger Co., a supermarket chain that hasn’t been in Chicago proper for decades, but does have some subsidiaries that operate in the Chicago area.

One of which is the Mariano’s chain of up-scale supermarkets that they purchased not long ago. It seems they’re taking on the same environmentally concerned approach to doing business.

BEGINNING NEXT YEAR in Seattle, they’re going to do away with those plastic bags we all have received far too often when grocery shopping. Unless we’re the type who actively go out of our way to choose “paper” whenever asked the eternal question “paper or plastic.”

By 2025, the Kroger people say they want to do away with plastic bags altogether – as though they expect the world of grocery shoppers to start carrying around reusable tote bags every time they go to pick up foodstuffs. Which may make sense on a certain level, but I suspect a certain segment of society will always remain too lazy to think that far ahead when going out to shop for groceries.

Fun? Or hazardous?

In Chicago, we already have what was supposed to be the initiative to discourage plastic bag use – having retailers charge 7 cents per bag on top of the price of the merchandise.

I know some people are too cheap to pay it, but many others just wind up coughing up the cash for the convenience. Which results in lots of the plastic bags accumulating in our humble abodes.

AT LEAST IN my case, the bags do get re-used. My father and step-mother have a pair of dogs and there are times when I wind up with the task of walking them. Which means I carry pockets-full of the plastic bags so I can pick up the poop and not create a health hazard for the neighbors.

Of course, that means the bags wind up going into a trash bin filled with canine caca and will eventually wind up in a landfill that way – where the bags will outlast the poop inside them.

More in the way of change in our society. The day may well come when people won’t be capable of comprehending why we snickered at the thought of laws against straws – or bag bans!

Just like another story I stumbled onto – one involving the closing of yet another Sears store AND a Kmart by year’s end.

THE SEARS IN question is in downstate Bloomington; the city in which I attended college and where I remember often buying typewriter ribbons and occasionally having to take my Sears-model typewriter in for repairs.

While the Kmart is in suburban Steger – a municipality that typically would not have been considered significant-enough to have such a retailer. But the long-time mayor always considered it his major accomplishment of some 40 years in office that he made the trip to Troy, Mich., to persuade corporate types to locate in his village.

Yet another retail vacancy that will need to be filled by year's end

But nothing lasts forever, and soon they will just be memories – and something to be included on those lists to be published in a couple of decades of things that college-age kids of the future never actually experienced in life.

Perhaps also like the straws that some of us of now see merely as a political tactic, rather than a legitimate issue.

  -30-

Amazon in Chicago – how can they seriously consider any other HQ site?

I have a biased opinion – I think very highly of my home city of Chicago, and think that if the people who run Amazon.com seriously want the best possible location for the new second headquarters they want to build, it’s only a natural they will come here.

Could the 'smile' be on Chicago faces in future?

As in, if they don’t have the sense to realize how wonderful Chicago is, then who needs them anyway?!?

BUT I REALIZE there are a variety of perspectives, and the Seattle-based people who run Amazon.com likely are going to have a variety of communities offering up all the goodies they can envision to try to attract the facility.

Seriously, Chicago officials are eager to have the plant, because it would be a nationally-renowned business that would bring significant attraction to the city’s public image. In addition to the actual jobs that would be created by the need for such a facility to have employees based there.

Not that any of this means a thing to the person who, because they live in the middle of nowhere, finds it easiest to shop for goods through Amazon.com. They’ll buy their products regardless of where the plant they’re dealing with is located.

Now I don’t know what the chances are that Chicago will wind up getting the facility, even though so-called experts can rattle off a list of a half-dozen potential sites – and activist-types can come up with other locations they think are being overlooked.

INCLUDING THOSE PEOPLE who seriously say that Chicago ought to work with people in Gary, Ind., to make the latter a site for an Amazon.com facility. Gary certainly could use a jolt, since there are times when it seems like the only kind of business that Northwest Indiana city can attract are used-car lots.

Some dream of turning Old Post Office building into Amazon.com HQ

I’m sure there are those who will rattle off a “laundry list” of flaws about Chicago and the state political people that they think will scare off the Seattle boys into considering their own preferred site.

I’m also aware of that analysis the New York Times concocted that cited our political flaws and concluded that Denver, Colo., is the logical place for Amazon.com to locate.

I found it a little intriguing to learn that Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday admitted he’s working with Missouri officials who’d like to see St. Louis become the actual site of the new facility.

Could 21st Century take include Amazon.com logo?

BECAUSE THERE ARE parts of Illinois that lie right across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis. The decrepit city of East St. Louis, Ill., is literally in the shadow of the Gateway Arch – that city’s great landmark and supposedly the entry-way to the western United States.

Meaning that if Amazon.com were to locate there, it would be possible for some Illinois residents to gain jobs. Even though I’m sure that Missouri officials would love to concoct some sort of deal that would treat the river as an impenetrable barrier to prevent any of the economic benefits from flowing eastward.

But I’m also sure if Rauner comes out too strong in favor of a Chicago site (or even hinting at cooperation with Hoosier officials to get a Gary site), those people of rural Illinois who always rant and rage about Chicago taking everything would complain. Maybe even turn on the governor at a time when he’s trying to build up a strong “urban vs. rural” dichotomy to get himself re-elected.

So Rauner has to offer up some way of bringing downstate Illinois into the debate. Even if it’s probably a long-shot, and it would be more likely that Chicago would get serious consideration – that is, unless Amazon.com ultimately decides there’s nothing about the Midwestern U.S. that appeals to them.

WHICH WOULD BE a mistake.

Amazon.com retail in Chicago wouldn't be a new concept for the city

The reality is that Chicago has the potential for significant economic benefit due to its location. Major airports, along with highways and railroad lines that all treat Chicago as the national hub. It’s about as close to a central location as one gets.

And anybody who claims we’re too political in Chicago or Illinois ought to realize the ridiculousness of their argument if they’re also amongst those who are talking up the District of Columbia as a potential site.

Besides, just as there was a time in the 20^th Century when people shopped mail-order through the Sears catalog, it enhanced the city’s image that Sears, Roebuck & Co. was located here. Maybe Amazon.com in Chicago is the perfect 21^st Century continuation of that character.

  -30-

No more “Sears” on State Street! Will anyone in Chicago miss it in the least?

My initial reaction to learning this week that Sears plans to close its so-called “flagship” store on State Street was to wonder to myself, “Didn’t they just get here?”

Big news! Or the ultimate "ho-hum?"

It actually shocked me to realize that the return of Sears to State Street occurred in 2001. They’ve been back for nearly 13 years – with the help of funds provided by city government from Tax Increment Finance districts. It was state funding that kept the corporate headquarters in suburban Hoffman Estates a few years ago.

YET I ALSO have to confess that perhaps it is people just like myself who are responsible for Sears’ inability to maintain a major department store in the downtown Chicago area.

For in those 13 years that Sears was back on State Street, I personally never set foot in the store. From accounts I have heard and read from people who have been inside, they were the rarity.

There weren’t enough customers for Sears to make a go of it. Some of you may want to wisecrack that none of the Sears stores have enough customers to survive. But the modern-day Sears customer is someone who is using one of their suburban shopping mall customer.

Not exactly the kind of person who’s going to want to make the trip to downtown to lug around shopping bags from store to store in search of their life’s necessities and luxury items.

YES, I REALIZE that there are many millions of people who work in the Loop who could include a trip to Sears in with their routine before returning home. Although I suspect even many of them weren’t going to want to be bothered.

It’s hard to think of the State Street Sears store as the company “flagship” when it most likely was an afterthought to any kind of person who was still inclined to think “Sears” when they had shopping to do!

The Chicago White Sox' "real" home....

Which is why the idea of Sears on State Street (at State and Madison streets, to be exact) will be no more once we get into spring. In fact, the whole idea of Sears as a Chicago entity is really no more. The corporate headquarters is in suburban Hoffman Estates – and even that has threatened to leave our area altogether in recent years.

Sears, it seems, has become an element of Chicago history – not its present. Just like Marshall Field’s, that little tugboat-like building on the Chicago River that once housed the Chicago Sun-Times, and Comiskey Park.

... just like this is the "real" Sears

IN FACT, MY own thought process thinks that the Sears store on State Street is comparable to U.S. Cellular Field – the stadium used by the Chicago White Sox.

We go to it, we sit in its seats and watch a ballgame. Yet we can’t help but remember that old whitewashed brick building that used to be to the north of 35^th Street and think the current structure is somehow lacking.

As though it’s not the real ballpark.

Just as Sears used to be one of the anchors of the shopping district on State Street, until they gave in to contemporary retail trends (the ones that favor a cut rate-type marketer like Wal-mart) and closed their long-time flagship a couple of blocks further south near Congress and Van Buren streets, the current Sears store somehow felt like it was an imitator.

TO THE POINT where I never felt compelled to spend money there – even though the history buff in me fully comprehends the significance of a business flagship on State.

So what happens now? Other than the fact that the Chicago Public Schools has expressed interest in moving their main offices from Clark Street over to State – taking over at least part of the store

Will we someday wonder why it was called Sears?

The company has said the closeout sale will begin soon and will carry on until mid-April. Maybe somebody has dreams of people who file their tax returns early, and spend their return in one last shopping spree on State Street.

Wouldn’t it be just Sears’ luck of late that they mark everything down significantly in price – only to find out that still, nobody wants to make the trip to buy.

  -30-

No idea is really new

I couldn’t help but be amused Monday morning when Robin Meade (the one-time WMAQ-TV reporter-type who now anchors the morning news on CNN’s headline news service) sounded so perky in telling us that IKEA is now in the business of selling us actual houses.

The Ideabox pre-fab home ...



Now, one can not only go to IKEA to buy a batch of build-it-yourself furniture, you can even plunk down some $86,000 and buy a build-it-yourself house.

ACTUALLY, A KIT with all the pieces needed. What a new innovation! How clever!

Except for a couple of things.

First off, it seems that the prefab houses are not actually an IKEA product. They were designed (and the kits put together) by an Oregon-based company called Ideabox.

Although, Ideabox got input in the design of the kits from IKEA officials in Portland. So naturally, everybody was quick to give IKEA the credit. The company had to go so far as issuing a statement last week to clarify the situation.

YET THERE IS another, more important, reason why this particular “story” amuses me. The idea of buying a prefab house is so NOT a new concept.

Anybody who thinks that buying one of these kits and putting together a residence puts them at the forefront of the 21^st Century will be depressed to learn that they’re, “So last century!”

Because we all either remember, or have heard the stories about, the days when Chicago-based Sears, Roebuck & Co. was in the business of selling pre-fabricated houses – many of which are still standing even though it has been just over seven decades since Sears got out of the house business.

... and its century-old Sears predecessor



In fact, the concept is so similar that a part of me wonders if it is possible for the Sears types to sue Ideabox for stealing their idea. (It probably isn’t, but I’m sure Sears officials are feeling so desperate these days that they’d consider just about any concept that didn’t involve closing more stores).

THE IDEABOX HOUSES are in kit form, with all the pieces needed to put together a house. You have to figure out how to buy a plot of land to build it on and pay for the connections to electricity and other utilities (otherwise the structure becomes nothing more than an overly-elaborate outhouse).

But it’s literally a build-it-yourself project. Invite a few friends over, particularly if you have friends who actually have some skills when it comes to construction or repair projects.

Which sounds so virtually identical to the concept of the old Sears Modern Homes that I have to wonder who ripped off whom.

Those homes were also sold through the catalog (you couldn’t go to an actual Sears store to pick out a “house”) between 1908 and 1940 – with the company estimating that some 70,000 kits were sold during those 32 years.

THE KITS WERE shipped literally in railroad box cars, with every single piece labeled properly so that (if you were capable of following instructions) you could put it together yourself.

Or perhaps invite the friends and neighbors over to help – almost like the days of old when this was still the frontier and you might literally turn a home construction into a “barn-raising” party.

These Ideabox people have literally resurrected an idea with origins in the early days of this nation (the 18^th and early 19^th centuries) as we are now one decade into the 21^st.

And just as the Ideabox houses are advertised as having all of the equipment needed for modern technology (it won’t be a primitive shack), the Sears houses of old incorporated the now-standard ideas of central heating, indoor plumbing and electricity.

IN FACT, I can only think of one real difference between the two ideas.

The Sears Modern Homes idea ultimately died with the Great Depression, which caused many people to default on the mortgages that Sears offered to help people pay for such a financially-substantial purchase – which ultimately made the idea of a new home purchase too expensive for enough people to buy for Sears to keep the product in their inventory of goods for sale.

MEADE: Told us about it



Whereas it seems the Ideabox houses are being marketed in part as a cheaper alternative to a more conventionally-constructed residence; although Meade on Monday morning quipped that the prefab houses could be a cheap way to have a small, “vacation house” on an isolated plot of land.

I suppose anything is possible, particularly in these times that many people feel economically-strapped, and some think it is the worst downtown SINCE the Great Depression.

SO SINCE THIS Ideabox concept seems to be a Portland-based concept for the time being, it may be some time before we start seeing such structures being erected here.

Which means it remains to be seen whether they will take on the lasting character of the Sears Modern Homes. Will we someday see clusters of Ideabox/IKEA houses being boasted of – similar to how places like Elgin think it adds to their historic character because their roughly 200 Sears homes are the largest-known collection of such houses anywhere in the world.

And for those of you wondering why I'd write up something on this trivial topic, would you really rather read yet another piece of commentary about "Super Tuesday?" I didn't think so.

  -30-

We shouldn’t be surprised that Sears closes stores after getting tax break

There are many people these days who are outraged with Sears, using the Internet to vent their rage at the fact that the retailer had the gall to demand a serious tax break from the Illinois General Assembly, then announce that it plans to close stores across the country.

Personally, I can’t get upset – largely because it is exactly the kind of conduct I would have expected. I’m dismayed that conditions are like this, but not the least bit surprised that it could happen like this.

BESIDES, IT ISN’T like any agreement was violated. The actions that happened this month are completely within the “letter of the law.” If anything, Sears’ behavior is perfect evidence of the fact that not every bad thing that happens is illegal.

So let’s look at what happened with Sears, which used its political clout to pressure the Illinois Legislature and Gov. Pat Quinn to back a measure giving the corporation some serious tax breaks.

At a time when Illinois government is looking for every bit of income it can get its hands on, the idea that it would be willing to “give back” some money is a significant act on its part.

But Sears Holding Corp. used political blackmail, so to speak, to get what it wanted. They threatened to leave their northwest suburban corporate headquarters and relocate to some other state (possibly North Carolina, in Charlotte) if they weren’t given financial incentives to stay.

ILLINOIS GOVERNMENT, NOT wanting the national “black eye” of having a company with such history leaving our boundaries, gave in. They got their tax breaks, although it took the General Assembly several tries to get it done.

And some legislators prefer to think that they voted to grant some tax relief to low-income people. Although anyone who is being honest admits that no one would have cared about the low-income people if not for the need to address Sears.

But this week, saying that the Christmas holiday season was nowhere near as good financially as they would have wanted, Sears said that about 120 stores across the country will have to be shuttered. On Thursday, they went so far as to identify 79 locations – with the implication being that another 40 or so yet-to-be-identified stores will also be closed in the near future.

Now this deal doesn’t, in any way, affect the fact that the corporate headquarters will continue to be in Hoffman Estates – which was the only condition of the tax break.

NOBODY EVER PROMISED that all the stores would stay open. So nothing legally improper (a.k.a., criminal) has occurred.

I’m sure the fact that no Sears stores (or their sister K-mart stores) in Illinois are being closed is solely because no one wants to tick off the political people here. But when a little more time passes, there could well be Illinois-based Sears stores that get closed.

In fact, the only Chicago-area store affected by this week’s announced round of closings is a K-mart in St. John, Ind.

That store at the far southeast corner of the Chicago metropolitan area likely is cost some jobs and some will be hurt. But it is on the other side of State Line Road. I’m sure that Sears officials are justifying this one local closing by thinking to themselves, “What has Indiana done for us lately?”

WHICH MAY NOT be an illegal viewpoint for them to have. But it is one that bothers me that we have to accept it as just the way things are done.

It is the reason why I have my problems with the ideologues of our society who like to rant that our governments in Illinois and Chicago are anti-business. We supposedly tax so excessively that no reputable business would want to locate within our area.

Ignoring the fact that access to the Chicago-area, with all its perks and joys, is something of significant value to a business in-and-of itself.

The kind of people who want to think they’re being “pro-business” are really just too eager to give in to the corporate whims that would just as soon believe they should not have to pay any kind of tax.

ALL-TOO-OFTEN, THEY’RE THE same entities that rant about how profitable they could be – if only they didn’t have to pay such ridiculously-high wages to their employees. As though they’d have any kind of product or service to sell for profit if NOT for their employees.

Which means the next time I hear that someone is complaining about how “anti-business” Illinois and Chicago are, I’m going to wonder if they’re the kind of person who thinks it is somehow proper that Sears would whack away at stores and jobs just a couple of weeks after getting a significant business break from state government.

The fact that anyone could think this is acceptable is what I find offensive – much more than the business’ act itself.

  -30-

Capitol conniving takes place on both sides of the politically partisan aisle

Words such as “done deal’ are being used to describe the fact that the Illinois General Assembly will return to the Statehouse in Springfield ONE MORE TIME this year to try to pass a deal meant to bring an end to speculation that entities such as the Chicago Board of Trade and Sears will leave Illinois.



There may be a deal on corporate tax breaks for Sears and the commodities exchanges, but the trust level of legislators these days is about as gloomy as this century-old postcard image of the Illinois Statehouse.



Then again, in Springpatch Speak (that unique brand of double-talk used by state politicos), “done deal” merely means they’re going to try again – with everybody convinced that someone else will try to do the political equivalent of sticking a shiv in their spine.

I PHRASE IT so crudely because the mentality that goes into such strategy is blunt.

We have leaders for both Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature claiming to have a deal on the proposed corporate tax breaks, one negotiated in good faith and meant to bolster our state’s business climate – while also offering some aid to those of us who aren’t CEO’s of major corporations.

Yet the plotting of this event, which will begin when the Illinois House of Representatives returns to Springfield on Monday and could end with the state Senate doing their thing on Tuesday, makes it clear that nobody really trusts anybody else.

For the record, the legislators will be asked once again to vote on the concept of changing the way transactions taxes are figured for the Board of Trade and Mercantile Exchange.

BOTH CLAIM THEY are being extremely overtaxed (although many corporate types often give off the impression that they view ANY tax as over-tax).

There also is a tax credit being extended for another decade for Sears Holding Co., which could save that corporation about $15 million per year, and now legislators are being asked to consider a tax credit for Southern Illinois-based Champion Laboratories, Inc.

Which plays right into the hands of all those “Occupy Chicago” activist types who claim that the problem with our government is that it is too eager to benefit business at the expense of real people (a.k.a., the 99 percent).

The Illinois Senate had previously approved a version of this bill that also included an expansion of the earned income tax credit (from 5 percent to 10 percent) that could reduce the tax bills for low-income families.

BUT THE ILLINOIS House had rejected that notion (with its “infamous” 8-99 vote), claiming that the state can’t afford to lose the roughly $110 million such a tax break would cost to provide. And yes, it was the Republican caucus that instigated this particular opposition – although many Democrats also voted against the idea, largely because they seemed confused last week about what it was they were doing.

Which is why political people have now split this up into multiple bills that will require several votes to complete, and will probably take hours upon end to achieve a goal that many legislators seem to desire.

Yes, it will be staged so that the first “vote’ taken will be on the earned income tax credit expansion. The assorted tax breaks for business interests will come afterward, BUT ONLY if the tax credit for low-income families comes first.

If the earned income tax credit expansion fails in the Illinois House, then the tax breaks will never come up for a vote this year (which could backfire because Sears, at least, says it wants to know by year’s end what they can count on from the General Assembly). This won’t become one of those perennial bills that gets debated year after year after year – with promises of action some time in the distant future.

BECAUSE THE STATE Senate has also made it clear they will gladly cancel their scheduled emergency session date for Tuesday – if the Illinois House turns out to be incapable of passing anything.

Which also means the stage is being set for all the rhetorical blame that will be dished out.

Democrats will argue it is their GOP colleagues who caused the failure. If Sears were to leave for some place such as North Carolina, or if the commodities exchanges were really to relocate to a place such as Indianapolis, they will claim it is the fault of the GOP for not being willing to approve a deal.

Meanwhile, my mind can already envision the GOP criticism that will say Democrats who lead the Legislature let this matter get bogged down with what they’d like to consider an “irrelevant” issue.

PERHAPS THEY’LL EVEN claim this is “class warfare” by bringing tax breaks for poor people into the political mix on this issue.

Of course, the fact that this tax credit is being put into the mix is largely due to the fact that Democratic leaders of the Legislature want to have a little political cover. Otherwise, all the Occupy Chicago activist criticism that will be forthcoming will turn out to be true.

Our state’s business climate garbled up by officials more interested in partisanship and one-upmanship than trying to accomplish something, which is just as bad as those legislators in places like Indiana who are pushing for “right to work” laws because they think it will appease the conservative ideologue segment of voters come the next Election Day.

This whole issue is nothing but a political mess, particularly for one that officials are trying to describe as a “done deal.”

IT IS A done deal – provided that nobody decides to screw somebody else in the process between now and Monday/Tuesday.

On the Statehouse Scene, that concept is always a reality.

  -30-

EXTRA: How typically Springfield

There are times when I think the greatest political genius we have in Illinois is the Chicago White Sox.

CULLERTON: Will they REALLY wait?



By that, I mean their threats to leave the South Side for St. Petersburg, Fla., were serious enough that the General Assembly was forced to consider their late 1980s demand for a new stadium right then-and-there – resulting in the 1991 opening of the building we now call U.S. Cellular Field.

LEAVE IT TO the Illinois Legislature to get around to you, and you will wait a very long, long time for any results to come about.

That was on evidence Tuesday at the Statehouse in Springfield, where large numbers of political people were eager to cast votes indicating they supported the idea of giving significant tax breaks to Sears Holding Co., along with the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Yet the Illinois House and state Senate persisted in passing their own versions of such tax breaks (the Senate version included more tax relief for lower-income individuals, in addition to the corporate tax reductions, which is why Gov. Pat Quinn prefers it).

When asked about this conflict that could prevent any bill from being approved in the immediate future, Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said that the General Assembly could easily spend the months of spring 2012 resolving the political differences between the two bills.

CONSIDERING THAT THIS corporate tax relief measure WAS the reason the General Assembly felt compelled to extend the length of the fall veto session (which should have ended two weeks ago), the idea that they can now just take their time on the issue sounds a bit absurd.

They came back for an extra day at the Statehouse (trust me; life in Springfield, Ill., during the Christmas holiday season isn’t that exciting) to do nothing.

I can’t envision their per diem fee ($132 per day for housing and meals) is worth the time and effort to make the trip to the capital city.

Cullerton also said he thinks the corporate entities that want these tax breaks should be willing to wait because their basic legal language is getting approved by the different legislative chambers.

YET I CAN’T help but be skeptical – even though a part of me thinks it might be good if these particular tax breaks don’t go through and become state law.

Perhaps those corporate entities will be impatient. Or fearful that they’re going to become one of the “perpetual” issues that comes up before the General Assembly. How many decades have we pondered the idea of a new Chicago-area airport? Or expanded casino opportunities?

Even in cases where the General Assembly eventually acts, how many more years after the White Sox deal did it take for the Chicago Bears to get a political agreement for the renovation of their stadium?

For the record, it was 14 years. That was their “reward” for being patient and waiting, instead of playing political hardball like the White Sox.

  -30-

Corporate tax breaks is reason the Legislature is bothering to come back

There has been a lot of speculation about whether the General Assembly will manage to give its approval to a casino expansion measure that Gov. Pat Quinn will be to sign into law.

There also are other measures desired by various interests, all of which will get a chance to come to life when the Illinois Legislature convenes again on Tuesday for yet another day of its fall veto session.

YET NONE OF this would have been possible, except for a bill that would appear to go to the very heart of what all these Occupy Chicago/Wall Street/wherever types claim is wrong with our society today.

For the reason that our Legislature felt compelled to add another day to the fall veto session (which was scheduled to end a couple of weeks ago) was a measure related to tax breaks for business interests.

The Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange have claimed they are overtaxed, and that they want changes in state laws that will reduce the amount of money they would have to pay for doing business in Illinois. They also have threatened to leave our wonderful city – using the claim that modern technology no longer requires them to physically be IN Chicago in order to do their global trade.

THAT is the reason we’re coming back today. The fact that a whole lot of other issues will also get a chance to gain approval is just a secondary benefit.

NOT EVEN THE idea of casino expansion would have been enough to bring the General Assembly back to Springfield prior to their next official dates of business in January.

So if you are of the type who seriously wants to have more gambling opportunities across Illinois, you should be thankful for the Board of Trade and Mercantile Exchange. Otherwise, you’d be waiting until next spring for any more consideration.

Of course, that’s assuming that anyone has changed their stance on gambling. For all I know, nothing may happen on Tuesday regarding casinos, and we could still be addressing this issue come spring.

So what should we think of this measure meant to benefit those agricultural commodities traders?

ACTUALLY, IT AMUSES me that whenever I hear legislators talk about this issue, they describe it in different terms. For state lawmakers used this same bill to also add in some changes in tax law that relate to Sears Holding Inc. – which has threatened to move its corporate headquarters from the northwest suburbs to some other state if they don’t get tax breaks.

Legislators talk about this bill as the “Sears tax break.” They say they’re just trying to be business-friendly to a corporation that has more than a century of history in our state.

It just sounds better to say “I’m helping Sears” than it does to say “I’m helping the Board of Trade.” The latter really reeks of confirming the suspicions of activists these days that our government officials are only interested in helping the 1 percent of wealthy corporate interests – while maybe the 99 percent of the rest of us shop at Sears.

I suspect if they really wanted to reflect the modern-day consumer, they’d offer up some sort of aid to Target and Wal-mart (where many of us are more likely to shop).

ANYWAY, THIS BILL will be the one that comes up Tuesday in the Illinois House of Representatives and the state Senate. As it was, an Illinois House committee gave the measure its recommendation during a hearing held Monday.

The General Assembly will be asked to provide tax breaks of up to $250 million – with about 40 percent of that going to the Mercantile Exchange, the Board of Trade and Sears.

To try to appease those Occupy protesters (and the regular people who sympathize with them), there also will be $100 million in tax breaks for smaller companies, and another $50 million to cover the cost of expanding the earned-income tax credit for the working “poor.”

In short, we’re seeing that our state does have a sense of being willing to offer aid to corporate interests – despite the claims of certain states with their “Illinoyed” marketing campaign that is trying to draw businesses out of our state and away to theirs.

PERHAPS OUR STATE just has a sense that the interests of corporate and personal interests need to be balanced off – while others (including our neighbor to the east – Indiana) are too willing to play partisan politics (such as persisting with legislation to turn themselves into a “right to work” state) with the issue.

This is the reason our Legislature is back in session. We feel the need to give business interests some aid – even though school officials in the area surrounding the Hoffman Estates corporate headquarters for Sears claim they will lose significant amounts of tax revenue they were receiving from having the retail company in their community.

Even if the Legislature manages to leave town without expanding casino gambling, there likely will be plenty of action that will manage to tick people off -- even though a part of you should be greatful that this issue enabled the Legislature to return to the Statehouse this week to consider your pet cause.

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Would we really miss Sears if it left? Strategy reminiscent of the White Sox

I have to confess. I can’t recall the last time I actually purchased anything from Sears.

I doubt I’m at all unique in that regard. The retailer with lots of history and significance to the Chicago-area economy throughout the years is having its own economic struggles.



Lots of Chicago history. But what is its present value?



SO MUCH SO that the company reportedly is considering locating its corporate headquarters somewhere else. We wouldn’t be able to claim Sears as “one of our own.” That honor (if you believe the reporting of the Associated Press) would fall to Boston or the District of Columbia.

But in light of the fact that so few of us are continuing to shop at Sears, I wonder if we’d really care if they left.

Now as many business-oriented people believe, Sears is letting it be known that they may leave the Chicago area altogether and give our business world a symbolic blow of rejection because what they really want is some sort of concessions from government officials that will help boost their bottom line WITHOUT having to go to the trouble of boosting their sales.

Tax breaks of some sort. Perhaps some sort of financial help in terms of maintaining their properties. Who’s to say what they want, or what the state will be willing to give.

BECAUSE GOV. PAT Quinn has said Illinois is willing to do what it takes in order to keep the Sears “brand” as a Chicago-area based company (their headquarters these days is in suburban Hoffman Estates – which is why it’s now the Willis Tower).

On an intellectual level, I’m sure one can argue that there are limits to what Sears ought to be given by the state. One legislator went so far as to tell the Associated Press that Sears is on “the downswing” and shouldn’t get much in the way of anything in terms of financial concessions.

But still, Sears is Sears. If anything, it might be more of a symbolic blow to Chicago’s image to lose Sears than it was when Marshall Field’s officially became nothing more than the Chicago branch of Macy’s.

If anything, it reminds me of the politicking that took place some 23 years ago when the Chicago White Sox went so far as to sign a lease with officials in St. Petersburg, Fla., to have the ballclub play their games in the (then) newly-constructed Florida Suncoast Dome.

IT WAS ONLY when the General Assembly, with its arm twisted by then-Gov. James R. Thompson, engaged in some creative political maneuvering to approve the measure that resulted in the construction of U.S. Cellular Field.

Which White Sox officials later admitted was their true desire. Threats to become the Florida White Sox were merely to scare Chicago political people into pressuring the Legislature to act – and was actually the recommended strategy to the ballclub of Thompson himself.

Now I know of some political people who voted for the White Sox move back in 1988 because of the sentiment that it would be “too embarrassing” for Chicago to lose such a long-standing baseball franchise (a charter member of the American League when it was created in 1900, upgrading to “major league” status in 1901).

Which sounds way too much like the rhetoric we’re likely to hear in coming months. Losing Sears would be the ultimate degradation to the Chicago-area economy (let alone Illinois).

YET I WONDER just how much Illinois can afford to concede in light of the current economic condition? Or if any of the other cities that are making offers to try to attract Sears to their municipal boundaries can seriously afford to pay for whatever perks they are offering the historic retailer?

Should we regard the idea of a D.C.-based Sears in the same way we think of the Florida White Sox – a cute idea that just isn’t practical?

But on the other hand, if Illinois officials decide to play their hand too much like a sledge hammer, will they wind up offending Sears to the point where the company leaves for another city just out of spite?

Because a Sears move wouldn’t be a cheap one for the company. They would need a pretty significant offer to make a move worth their while. That is something our local politicos ought to keep in mind when contemplating what it is worth to keep the corporate headquarters – which admittedly provides for significant numbers of jobs in the northwest suburbs.



There's a reason it's now called the Willis Tower



I KNOW THAT one of  the legislators who voted for the White Sox stadium (then-state Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch) has since said her vote for her favorite baseball team was one of the “five worst votes” she made during her 18 years in the General Assembly.

If we go too far overboard in trying to concoct an economic package to keep Sears in the suburbs, will we have our current crop of legislators making similar comments someday about the company that once had Hammond, Ind. watchmaker Alvah Roebuck as an equally-prominent part of its name?

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