Two sides, one city.

The newly re-elected House speaker is pushing a new tax on businesses, an increase to the minimum wage and more spending, while doing nothing to address salient problems such as workers’ compensation and pension debt.

Chicago and Illinois have plenty of their own problems on the manufacturing front, with issues such as high property taxes and workers’ compensation costs driving production facilities to other states. But U.S. trade policy regarding sugar isn’t helping matters. For each one sugar growing and harvesting job saved through high U.S. sugar tariffs, nearly three confectionery manufacturing jobs are lost, according to the International Trade Administration.

Deere & Co. plans to lay off 115 manufacturing workers by late September.

Caterpillar Inc.’s announcement of 670 layoffs comes amid the loss of a quarter of the manufacturing jobs in Peoria and Tazewell counties since 2008.