Dupage Policy Journal

State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) is lamenting news of the latest Illinois company to make the move across the border for what it views as a better atmosphere for business.

“And there goes another manufacturer just across the border as Illinois becomes pass-through territory,” Ives recently posted on Facebook as the Seal-Rite Door company officially made its move from Rockford to Wisconsin, taking its more than 80 jobs along with it.

According to WKOW.com, after 15 years in Rockford, the company’s new, expanded operations will be part of the Wisconsin Stateline Industrial Park in Beloit where, company officials, said the new facility will come with state-of-the-art equipment and help bring about greater efficiency in operations.   

“It is our utmost priority in economic development to make expanding, growing, building your business, bringing in new business, easy,” Beloit’s city manager, Lori Curtis Luther, told WKOW.

While vowing to continue fighting for Rockford, Mayor Tom McNamara conceded to WKOW, “We retain companies every week and we are fighting against a whole host of factors from lower wage costs in Wisconsin to lower tax rates in Wisconsin.”

As incentive for making the move, Seal-Rite Door was awarded as much as $250,000 in state tax credits over the next three years.