Illinois’ economy is on the road to recovery, with annual gross domestic product recently surpassing $1 trillion, fueled by more than 660 business expansions and relocations in 2024. This is due in no small part to Gov JB.Pritzker’s efforts to expand our state’s economy and demonstrate that Illinois is “Open for Business.”
However, recently Illinois lawmakers passed Senate Bill 328, which threatens this progress and would all but ensure businesses look elsewhere to grow. The measure passed quickly and quietly during the final hours of the legislative session and would allow anyone who claims exposure to a toxic substance anywhere in the U.S. to file a lawsuit in Illinois against the company that’s responsible, provided it’s registered with the state. This creates a sweeping form of “general jurisdiction,” exposing out-of-state companies to a flood of lawsuits in Illinois, including disputes having nothing to do with our state.
If signed into law, SB 328 would make Illinois an outlier as just the second state in the nation with such a statute.
Other governors recognize the dangers associated with a law like SB 328. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul twice vetoed a nearly identical proposal, calling it a “massive expansion” of jurisdiction that “would likely deter out-of-state companies from doing business in New York.”
That’s why we and others across Illinois strongly urge the governor to veto this bill and protect recent economic successes. Employers who are the backbone of our state, including manufacturing, retail, transportation, rail among others — oppose this legislation for the simple reason that it would make it difficult to attract and retain new businesses.
If you ask the people behind this bill, they’ll say it only applies to lawsuits involving toxic substances. It doesn’t. Its reach extends to any substance that can be ingested, inhaled or absorbed, and it is applicable to any “transaction,” exposing any number of industries.
Who really benefits in this equation? Plaintiff attorneys. They drove a surge in lawsuits involving out-of-state plaintiffs with no connection to the state when Pennsylvania adopted a similar law.
Here’s the bottom line: This bill threatens efforts to “attract, retain and expand businesses,” which the governor has rightly argued is key to Illinois’ long-term success.
The governor has a clear choice: Defend Illinois’ economic progress or send businesses elsewhere by opening courts to a wave of opportunistic litigation. We urge the governor to do the right thing by vetoing this bill.
Jack Lavin, president and CEO, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
Katie Reilly, executive director, Illinois Coalition for Legal Reform
Mark Denzler, president and CEO, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association
Rob Karr, president and CEO, Illinois Retail Merchants Association
Columbus deserves recognition
We don’t celebrate Christopher Columbus to throw a bone to the Italian American community. We celebrate him as the explorer who opened the Western hemisphere to Western civilization. There might never have been a U.S. if it hadn’t been for Columbus.
The legacy of both Columbus and the U.S. has been tarnished by some modern historians through a selective reading and interpretation of history. But we shouldn’t think that the true histories of our country and Columbus have been unknown or hidden for hundreds of years and only recently have been discovered.
Columbus was a hero, and our country is a great one. We need to celebrate both.
Larry Craig, Wilmette
Confused with Columbus’ appeal
I’m not sure I get it — this whole Christopher Columbus thing. He was Genoese, not Italian — there was no Italy in the 15th century. Though he was a remarkable autodidact, he was cruel, obstinate and an unpopular administrator. He sailed not under the flag of Genoa, but as a mercenary under the flag of Spain, and he claimed whatever stuff he stumbled up against for the king and queen of Spain. He’s perhaps buried (after a great deal of posthumous peripatetic shuffling) in Spain, not Italy. Why do Italian Americans wish him on a pedestal?
I happen to be German and Irish American — a fairly common combination in the Chicago area. I identify more Irish, and visited Ireland several times back in the 1980s. But a bronze effigy of Éamon de Valera on a plinth in a Chicago park would not bother me much by its presence or absence.
Kevin Kann, Libertyville
Toss out the life jacket proposal
This is in response to the article about Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th) proposal to require all boaters to wear life jackets. Coleman uses statistics of Lake Michigan drownings, but she grossly fails to differentiate between swimmers and boaters. The recent story that appeared in the Sun-Times also didn’t cite the number of boater drownings. I suspect that the vast majority of drownings involve swimmers. Does Ald. Coleman also want to mandate anyone dipping their toes in the water to wear a life vest? After all, that would likely eliminate all swimmers’ drownings. To mandate people to wear life vests on large vessels, i.e. dinner cruises, architectural tours, is unrealistic.
Leon Greenberg, Chicago
Editing ‘The New Colossus’
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” OK, not the poor, unless you’re white. But we prefer if you’re rich. If you’re rich, we don’t care what color you are. And no foreign students.
Jeff Zahrn, Dyer, Indiana
Sneaky Pete
In response to Sunday’s letter to the editor from Bob Heuer of Evanston: Can’t we just say, “Pete Rose died a cheater?”
Mark Weiher, Lake View
