N.J. Gov. In Illinois To Lure Businesses
CHICAGO (CBS) -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is in Chicago Friday, meeting with Illinois business leaders in hopes of luring them to his state.
The Republican governor is trying to woo businesses now that Illinois has raised taxes to deal with its budget deficit. He is sitting down with the business leaders in a private, closed-door meeting.
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"Don't let Illinois balance its budget on the back of your business. Choose New Jersey. We mean business," Christie says in the radio ad. "Oh, and one more thing. As long as I'm governor, I will not raise your taxes."
Last month, Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois legislators approved a measure to raise personal income taxes to 5 percent from 3 percent, and corporate business taxes to 9.5 percent from 7.3 percent.
That makes Illinois' business tax rate higher than New Jersey's 9 percent for businesses with incomes over $100,000. But its personal income tax rate remains lower: New Jersey's rate is 6.37 percent for couples earning more than $150,000 a year and 8.7 percent for those earning more than $500,000 a year.
After Christie made his push to lure Illinois businesses, Quinn said he was not concerned by the threat, and took a shot at Christie after the ad campaign began.
"I don't know why anybody would listen to him," Quinn said last month of Christie. "New Jersey's way of balancing the budget is not to pay their pension payment, not to deliver on property tax relief that was promised, to fire teachers, to take an infrastructure project — building a tunnel that had already been started — and end it and have to pay money back to the federal government. I don't need that kind of advice from that guy."
Christie campaigned last year for Quinn's Republican challenger, Bill Brady.
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