The State of Illinois is providing taxpayer funded incentives, of more than half a billion dollars, to lure a Communist China tied company, Gotion, to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery factory in the state.  Gotion will receive additional federal tax incentives.

The Gateway Pundit reported on Gotion’s recent failed attempt to build a similar factory in a small farming community in Green Twp, Michigan.

But Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced on Friday that Illinois is more than ready to hand over tax dollars to the CCP tied company.

The plant’s location in Manteno, Illinois lies approximately 30 miles from one of the largest inland ports in the United States.

Pritzker said in a statement announcing the deal, “In partnership with the business community and the General Assembly, two years ago we set out to make Illinois a destination for electric vehicle and clean energy companies from across the globe.”

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“With the right incentives, nation-leading infrastructure, world-class workforce and booming clean energy production, we have transformed ourselves into an attractive location for global manufacturers. Today, we take another leap forward. It’s my pleasure to welcome Gotion to Illinois and to show the world yet again that Illinois is ready to be a player on the world stage.”

WirePoints reports:

Governor JB Pritzker announced the state’s deal with Gotion on Friday for construction of the project in Manteno, southwest of Chicago. The plant is expected to cost $2 billion and employ 2,600 workers. Gotion’s total incentive package from the State of Illinois is valued at $536 million, according to Pritzker’s announcement. In addition, Kankakee County agreed to cap property taxes paid on the approximately 150-acre property at $2 million per year for the next 30 years.

The state incentive package alone, exceeding $206,000 per worker, is exceptionally high in comparison to typical plant-siting location incentives around the nation other than battery factories. “The average incentive deal in the U.S. might be around US$50,000 per job,” although it’s not unusual for highly capital-intensive projects to receive incentives of over US$100,000 per job.” That’s according to senior economist at the WE Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, quoted in the Financial Times.

However, those subsidies are dwarfed by huge federal tax credits now being lavished on new battery producers under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which devoted $783 billion to global warming and green energy spending. President Biden recently admitted that the act was not about inflation reduction. It has been heavily criticized as climate extremism.

Former Congressman Pete Hoekstra, who also served on the House Intelligence Committee, wrote about his concerns  with Gotion’s efforts in Michigan saying:

This is textbook CCP penetration of the U.S. economy on a sub-national level. They are cunning in their calculation, patient and persistent, and they utilize authoritarian efficiency as they influence our policymakers through intervening individuals and entities.

Taxpayer dollars must not be invested in U.S.-based projects that will fall under Chinese government control. We must be clear-eyed about the threat and fight it, rather than blindly invest taxpayer dollars to undermine our own national security.

May 26, 2020

J.B. Pritzker is a Horse's... Friend

By Daniel John Sobieski

A horse is a horse, of course, of course, unless that horse resides on the Pritzer horse farm in Wisconsin  As he requests the power to seize private business property if owners open too early or not in concert with his wishes, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says it’s not safe yet to hold indoor church services, but it’s totally okay that construction workers travel to his Wisconsin horse farm to build his new house.

Construction workers have been deemed essential, especially union construction workers who have dues taken out to fund the campaigns of politicians like Pritzker and who get time off to ring campaign doorbells on behalf of Illinois Democrat politicians. And so, apparently, is his horse farm, where the customers get better grooming services than the taxpaying citizens of Illinois.  If you want to get your hair cut or your nails done in Illinois, you might want to start eating hay and carrying a saddle around. Unless, of course, you are the “public face” of a major city like  Pritzker ally Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who issues citations to locked-down Chicagoan on her way to her personal hair stylist.

While he orders Illinois residents to stay in their homes and avoid unnecessary travel and contact, Pritzker, it is okay for Illinois construction workers, at his behest to travel to Wisconsin to work on the 7,000 square-foot, $2.5-million project  Maybe they couldn’t find enough work in locked-down Illinois. As Fox 32 Chicago reports:

FOX 32 News watched Thursday as construction workers from Illinois crossed the border to work on the governor’s farm. Pritzker, though, says there is no double standard because construction workers are exempt.

FOX 32 wandered over the Wisconsin border into Kenosha County and found more than 20 construction workers -- nearly all from Illinois -- helping build a massive new home and several outbuildings on Pritzker's horse farm…

All but one of the listed contractors is based in Chicago or its suburbs, and we saw cars and construction vehicles with Illinois plates leaving the project and turning south into the Land of Lincoln…

One Republican critic of the stay-at-home order says the traveling construction workers smacks of hypocrisy.

"He's saying they don't want to have any unnecessary travel,” said state Rep. John Cabello of Rockford. "It seems as though he has one set of rules for himself while everybody else has to abide by his stay-at-home order."

In Wisconsin, there are virtually no limitations on public accommodations after its Republican Supreme Court struck down their governor’s stay-at-home order.

State Rep. Cabello is currently involving in legal action against Pritkzer overextending his draconian and unconstitutional lockdown.  Lawsuits have been filed claiming Pritkzer’s lockdown does what protestors all over the country have claimed -- that such lockdown orders unconstitutionally infringe on our basic constitutional rights such as freedom of assembly,, the right to petition for redress of grievances, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, and even freedom of speech. Pritzker claims he is just violating our rights for our own good:

Pritzker finds himself in the middle of a legal battle over his extension of the lockdown order. Clay County Circuit Court Judge Michael McHaney sided with State Rep. Darren Bailey (R), who filed a lawsuit alleging that Pritzker exceeded his authority. While McHaney issued a temporary restraining order pausing the extended lockdown orders, it only exempts Bailey, leading to action from State Rep. John Cabello (R). He plans to issue a similar lawsuit, but in a way that will apply to everyone in Illinois.

“I want to see if what the governor is doing by extending his order is constitutional,” Cabello said.

“I’m not trying to put anybody in harm’s way here,” he continued. “I’m just wanting to see that some of this stuff start’s making common sense.”

Putting his Wisconsin horse farm above the welfare of the Illinois residents he represents shows a total lack of common sense and fairness. Clearly we are not, as the elites say before telling us to shut up and sit down, all in this together.

Interestingly, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court recently struck down that state’s stay-at-home order as an unlawful order that exceeded the state’s authority:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the state's stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic as "unlawful, invalid, and unenforceable" after finding that the state's health secretary exceeded her authority.

In a 4-3 ruling, the court called Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm's directive, known as Emergency Order 28, a "vast seizure of power."

The order directed all people in the state to stay at home or at their places of residence, subject only to exceptions allowed by Palm, the ruling says. The order, which had been set to run until May 26, also restricted travel and business, along with threatening jail time or fines for those who don't comply.

Would that Illinois’ Supreme Court might do likewise and provide a statewide reprieve. Pritzker was clever enough to argue that this was a civil-rights ruling and matter applying only to Bailey, not Illinois as a whole. Not so fast, said the U.S. Department of Justice. The DoJ  has sided with Bailey and Caballo on the excessiveness and illegality of Pritzker’s extension of his Illinois lockdown order:

On Friday, the DOJ filed a statement of interest supporting Republican Bailey's lawsuit, which challenges whether Illinois' Democratic governor can keep the state's lockdown order going past the 30 days allowed by state law, according to Fox News…

The DOJ also said that 'According to the lawsuit, the Governor’s actions are not authorized by state law, as they extend beyond the 30-day time period imposed by the Illinois legislature for the Governor’s exercise of emergency powers granted under the Act.'…

The civil rights angle allowed Pritzker to move Bailey's lawsuit from state to federal court, which presides over issues involving the US Constitution, according to NBC Chicago.

The move was made on Thursday, the day before a hearing was scheduled in state court.

Of the move, Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said in a statement: 'The Governor of Illinois owes it to the people of Illinois to allow his state’s courts to adjudicate the question of whether Illinois law authorizes orders he issued to respond to COVID-19.'

Dreiband also noted that 'Under our system, all public officials, including governors, must comply with the law, especially during times of crisis. The Department of Justice remains committed to defending the rule of law and the American people at all times, especially during this difficult time as we deal with COVID-19 pandemic.'

Despite his slogan “All In” which he preaches to Illinois residents under virtual house arrest Pritzker’s wife wasn’t content to hunker down with the peasantry and watch Netflix:

M.K. Pritzker, the billionaire wife of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), is reportedly skipping out on her husband’s stringent lockdown orders, jetting off to their $12.1 million equestrian estate in South Florida -- a state that has refused to implement what Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) described as “draconian” measures as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.

While Pritzker finds himself in the middle of a legal battle over his extension of his lockdown order… his wife is nowhere to be seen, at least in the Prairie State.

Illinois was already in deep trouble before Pritzker and the Wuhan virus showed up as the ultimate double whammy. But fear not, for whether the Pritzker’s are sheltering in place at their equestrian estate in South Florida or their horse farm in Wisconsin, rest assured their horses are doing just fine.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.