4  ILLINOIS BUSINESS LEADER
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
Recently, I attended a Suburban 
Chamber event that featured area 
legislators. The time for questions 
and answers arrived, and a REAL­
TOR from the audience asked the 
legislators why Illinois’ fiscal policies 
are so bad that her number one client 
is those people selling their homes 
and moving out of Illinois?  Imme­
diately, the legislators started citing 
wonderful statistics: Illinois has 
the fifth largest economy in the US, 
home to 36 Fortune 500 companies, 
etc., yet 2020-2024 Cumulative Out 
Migration in Illinois has been ap­
proximately 404,000 (US Census). 
	
Facts are facts; the legislators 
were right, and the REALTOR was 
right too.  While the Chamber 
recognizes we have major challenges 
facing Illinois: Workers Compensa­
tion Costs, High Property Taxes, and 
too much regulation coupled with 
the RTA Fiscal Cliff and Chicago’s 
impending budget storm clouds…we 
still are the Illinois Chamber of Com­
merce, and we are proud to call the 
Land of Lincoln home to our 3,000 
plus members. It is imperative that 
we continue to promote the six Rs of 
Illinois that are critical to economic 
development: rails, runways, roads, 
rivers, routers, and research, as well 
as all the water we have underground 
and in Lake Michigan, plus we are 
located right in the middle of the 
largest economy in the world.
	
Yet we still have the reality of 
people like that REALTOR sitting in 
that Suburban Chamber audience 
questioning what our leaders are 
doing to solve the issues she sees as 
detrimental to her long-term busi­
ness prospects. 
	
That’s where the collective re­
sources of all our Chamber members 
come into play because the Chamber 
has an amazing delta force of Gov­
ernment Relations Professionals who 
manage and review over 6,500 pieces 
of legislation and keep track of more 
than 1,100 that could impact on our 
members.  Individually, we are un­
able to have an impact, but together, 
our membership operationalizes 
resources to provide our President 
and CEO Lou Sandoval the ability to 
have the best team of professionals 
anywhere. 
	
One of the best quotes I like 
to give that highlights why people 
should join our Chamber comes 
from Kipling, “The strength of the 
Pack is the wolf, and the strength of 
the wolf is the Pack.”  There is noth­
ing we can’t accomplish while work­
ing together as a Chamber PACK! 
DAN WAGNER
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
A Message From the Chairman
“The legitimate object of government is to do 
for a community of people whatever they need 
to have done but cannot do…in their separate 
and individual capacities.”                
– Abraham Lincoln said this in a speech where he reflected that 
– government exists to support, not hinder, individual enterprise.

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