By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – The state tax incentive program that helped Bloomington-Normal land Mitsubishi Motors three decades ago is about to expire just as the plant announces plans to stop production.

The enterprise zone which waives property taxes for development ends next year but is up for renewal. State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the tax incentive is even more vital now.

“Everyone is making the argument that there’s is important, I think we have a real good argument ours is ever-more important today than it was before the (closing) announcement,” Brady said.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Brady on WJBC.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is expected to announce in September which of nearly 70 enterprise zones will be approved.

Brady said there’s no reason to believe that having a union workforce at Mitsubishi Motors will make it more difficult to find a buyer to take over the plant that’s scheduled to stop production this fall.

“We’ve talk to foreign manufactures, we know they like right-to-work zones,” Brady said. “That is something that will be attractive, but the efficiency of our labor is one of the best assets the plant has.”

Illinois lawmakers struck down right-to-work legislation in May.

Brady serves on a task force of legislative and business and labor leaders that’s trying to find a buyer for the plant and jobs for Mitsubishi’s more than 1,200 workers. He said the contract that United Auto Workers agreed to at Mitsubishi was more business-friendly that most union and some non-union contracts.

Brady said he’s optimistic the plant could end up landing ever more jobs that Mitsubishi had to give up because the plant’s production has been far below capacity over the last decade.

Budget

Lawmakers are set to return to the capitol on Tuesday as Illinois begins its second month without a budget.

The Illinois Senate could vote on a bill that would reject a two-percent cost-of-living increase for legislators. The House approved the measure last week. Brady expects the Senate will do the same.

“We finally got (House Speaker Mike Madigan) to realize that this is just terrible optics, terrible performance and got the house to vote down the pay raise,” Brady said. “We need to vote down the [ay raise in the Senate and I believe we will.”

Brady said the budget stalemate could still continue for a long time, depending on how long it takes for the issue of state worker pay gets resolved in the courts.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].