News that Wrigley has started producing Skittles in Illinois has many excited – until they learn just how much Illinois gave in tax incentives to lure 75 new jobs.

There’s a reason new facilities aren’t being built in Illinois: In too many cases a business investment in Illinois doesn’t make financial sense unless Illinois taxpayers are paying for a chunk of the project. This system isn’t good for businesses, or for workers and unions that are losing jobs. Until Illinois makes the broad tax and regulatory reforms needed to compete for blue-collar jobs, businesses are going to keep expanding elsewhere or asking for tax breaks to come here.

Nearly 25 percent of Illinois’ workforce requires government permission to work.

Amazon’s new Joliet, Ill., facilities will bring needed jobs to the state, but special tax deals are not the way to improve Illinois’ sluggish jobs climate.

A new report from the Illinois Department of Employment Security shows Illinois gained 5,400 jobs in April, but the state’s unemployment rate ticked up to 6.6 percent, tied for highest in the U.S.

The franchise tax is complicated and confusing, and compliance wastes the time and economic resources of Illinois’ businesses.

Illinois is one of four states in the entire U.S. to have fewer private sector jobs today compared to the turn of the century. The Land of Lincoln needs pro-growth reforms to allow the state’s private sector to rise again.