Steve Solomon

“I’ve been a boilermaker for 40 years. I was 20 years old when I started and I’ve raised eight kids on this job. It feels like back then you could just walk down the street and get a job in manufacturing …

“I was born and raised in Chicago but I left for Indiana 12 years ago with a tear in my eye. But I still work in Illinois, so it was like giving myself a raise when I moved here. I just couldn’t take the cost of living anymore, especially on property taxes. And I think that’s actually why you see manufacturing coming here and growing here [in Indiana] is that cap on property taxes. Where we live now used to be surrounded by a lot more farmland but there’s been so much development going on.

“They say opportunity only knocks once, but now you gotta chase it … and that opportunity just isn’t in Illinois more often than not. But the opportunities are coming back here in Indiana.”

Steve Solomon
Merrillville, Ind.