In a July 9 Chicago Tribune op-ed, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jack Lavin urged Chicago’s city leaders to focus on economic growth ahead of this summer’s budget discussions.
In the piece, Lavin wrote that the coming budget debate “will follow a familiar script of cuts on one side and new taxes on the other.” But that debate, he continued, “will miss a central issue: growth.”
According to Lavin, “Chicago must make growth — not just cuts and taxes — the centerpiece of its public policy strategy.” He proposed that every major decision on taxes, regulation, workforce and infrastructure be evaluated through a simple lens: “Does this make it easier or harder to invest, hire and grow in Chicago?”
“Growth is the foundation for everything we want our city to be: safer, more equitable, more affordable, more stable and more competitive,” Lavin added.
Lavin cited U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Peer metropolitan regions like Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth are growing faster than Chicago. In 2023, Chicago’s region lagged in real GDP growth at 1.4 percent, compared to the national 2.9 percent.
Lavin also announced the launch of Grow Chicago, “a pro-growth policy initiative with the simple vision of giving local businesses a voice and promoting economically sustainable policies that create jobs, support families and communities, and ensure long-term prosperity.”
“We have a tough road ahead of us with hard choices along the way,” Lavin concluded. “The question is: Will we ensure that growth is at the center of the public policy decisions that are shaping the future of our local economy?”
How Chicago answers, he wrote, “will determine whether Chicago will be the global leader we can and should be.”