Eye On Illinois: As Lion Electric ramps up, TTX HQ moves out

Choose your news: good or bad?

If you’re down on Illinois – or at least Chicago in particular – you can revel at a mid-July report that North Carolina promised up to $1.8 million in tax subsidies over a dozen years to lure TTX’s corporate headquarters from the Loop to Charlotte, where the freight railcar manufacturer will invest $14.5 million.

If you’re an optimist, there’s Friday’s story about Lion Electric in Joliet, the first new vehicle assembly plant in the Chicago area in more than half a century. The 900,000-square-foot facility has been assembling buses since November. Shaw Media’s Bob Okon reports the plant’s full capacity is 1,400 workers making 20,000 vehicles each year – one bus per hour.

Lion is a Canadian company, based in Montreal. It currently has only 250 workers in Joliet. Before it announced its move, TTX had about 280 HQ employees, the Sun-Times reported, though many worked remotely. The company intends to relocate 150 positions to Charlotte over the next few years.

Obviously, corporate taxes are significant, as is the uncertain future of commercial real estate. But work is work, and assembling electric buses and trucks is hopefully a solid employment plan. TTX’s office may move, but nearly half its local workforce won’t because they have rail yard jobs.

Individual data points are noteworthy, but the statewide job climate is fluid and dynamic.

ON THIS DAY: It’s been a month since we lost John Goodenough. Today marks 101 years since his birth to American parents living in Germany; he died in Texas on June 25. Goodenough earned a master’s degree and doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago; he shared in the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work invention the lithium ion battery. Then 97, he was the oldest person awarded a Nobel. The school’s essay noting this honor is at tinyurl.com/UCGoodenough.

It’s been a decade since we lost Adolph “Bud” Herseth, born this day in 1921 in Lake Park, Minn. Herseth, who died at his Oak Park home in April 2013, was a legendary musician who spent 53 years as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal trumpet, a vital cog in the group becoming world famous. You could lose hours listening to Herseth’s magnificence, but a great starting point is his solo at the beginning of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” a 1981 recording of which (under Sir Georg Solti) is available at tinyurl.com/CSOHerseth.

Speaking of famous nonnatives with strong Illinois ties, today marks 157 years since an act of Congress established General of the Army of the U.S. as a rank, bestowed on Galena’s Ulysses S. Grant. A visit to his Jo Daviess County estate (granthome.org) is an essential stop for any Illinoisan.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on Twitter @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.