Indiana ads target Illinois companies

Northwest Indiana already has a lot of "steel" jobs, and it hopes to soon add a number of "stolen" jobs.

"I mean, how often does a state increase its income tax by 66 percent?" asked Mark Maassel of the Northwest Indiana Forum. "It's pretty rare, there's no doubt about it, but that's why this campaign makes so much sense at this point in time."

The State of Illinois recently increased its individual income tax by 66 percent, and its corporate in come tax by 45 percent.

The Northwest Indiana Forum, along with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation are responding with a $250-thousand advertising campaign aimed at disgruntled business owners in Illinois.

"So we've got our little lemon here, showing 66 percent increase…," said Karen Lauerman while pointing to a mock up of one print advertisement, and reading the slogan, "feeling squeezed?"

Now that Illinois taxpayers have arguably been handed a lemon, the question becomes would they rather make lemonade, or "Make the Move."

Make the Move is the website listed in the lemon ad, for those seeking more information.

"They are not happy campers," said Maassel.

Another ad asks if people feel "Illinnoyed" by higher taxes, and steers them to the website "SolutionIndiana.com.

"And so what we wanted to do is express the frustration that Illinois businesses are feeling," said Lauerman.

"Think about Indiana, we're right across the state line it's a great place to do business," said Maassel. "We want to be very clear about our message, but we're not we're not out to offend people, we're not out to be just really in people's face, we do want them however to get the message."

Handouts will be used to follow up. They compare the tax rates, the unemployment insurance rates and the cost of electricity in both states.

The corporate income tax rate in Illinois is now 9.5 percent compared to 8.5 percent in Indiana.

Illinois' personal income tax rate is now 5 percent, compared to 3.4 percent in Indiana.

Before the most recent tax hike, Illinois' rates had been lower in both categories.

The ad campaign will run for the next three months, featuring print, broadcast and internet ads.

The campaign is being jointly funded by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Northwest Indiana Forum.

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