Few Illinois cities are growing, according to a new analysis of the the nation’s towns, which found Decatur to be the slowest-growing city in the United States.

Consumer finance research website WalletHub put Decatur at the bottom. And a state lawmaker says it’s time to act.

Of the 515 cities in the WalletHub 2018 Fastest-Growing Cities in America report, no Illinois city is above No. 343, where Champaign landed. Decatur was rock bottom at No. 515. Springfield wasn’t far behind at 507, the seventh slowest growing city.

The analysis “compared 515 cities of varying population sizes based on 15 key measures of both growth and decline over a period of seven years,” the report said. “Our data set ranges from population growth to unemployment rate decrease to growth in regional GDP per capita.”

While there were many cities in Texas and Florida among the top 30 fastest-growing cities, all of the Illinois cities reviewed were in the bottom half of the list.

“Tax incentives have been key in bringing Hollywood to Atlanta (Georgia) for instance, or the festival economy to Austin (Texas),” WalletHub spokesperson Jill Gonzales said. “Being tax-friendly states for individuals doesn’t hurt either, which is why young families are flocking to these states. That is one area where Illinois is struggling.”

State Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, said policymakers must also address other issues.

“We need to reform workers’ compensation, that’s the No. 1 thing I hear overall,” Butler said. “We need to have state agencies that open their arms and don’t stand in their way when businesses want to come to the state of Illinois.”

Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said the two-and-a-half years lawmakers failed to pass a budget was a one-two punch. He said the capital city, which provided state facilities with electricity from it’s publicly owned utility, went months without payment. The impasse also left the city’s medical community with unpaid bills for treating state employees.

Lawmakers eventually passed a budget, and $5 billion income tax increase, over the Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto in 2017. Langfelder said that fight meant other major issues were neglected.

“Pension reform is one of them,” Langfelder said. “The other side of it is workers comp. And being the city of Springfield, we’re hit with workers comp claims, so it’s not just the private sector, it’s the public sector as well. That could have been addressed but wasn’t.”

Langfelder said unfunded mandates on local governments increases the cost of government and burden on taxpayers. He also said lawmakers need to make government consolidation more streamlined.

Butler said while he’s hopeful his colleagues address such issues, there’s no sign they’re willing to shrink government.

“I understand that my Democratic colleagues think they have a lot of great ideas, but it always costs more and it always means larger government and that’s going to make it more difficult for the future,” Butler said.

Asked what it will take to get reforms at the statehouse, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association’s Mark Denzler said he wishes he knew.

“Only when you’ve been at the lowest point can you start rebounding,” Denzler said. “The fact that we’ve led the nation in out-migration for three years in a row should be a major warning sign to Illinois policy makers that they need to change the way they operate, they need to make positive changes.

I don’t know what it’s going to take to shock the system but certainly higher taxes and more regulation is not going to make Illinois more competitive.”

WalletHub’s report put Cicero and Chicago at Nos. 373 and 374, respectively. Aurora was at No. 380, Bolingbrook at No. 390, Palatine at No. 397, Arlington Heights at No. 400, Schaumburg at No. 425, Skokie at No. 433, Elgin at No. 454, and Bloomington at No. 469. Others on the Illinois cities on list included Rockford (483), Peoria (484), Evanston (485), Waukegan (493), Joliet (499), Springfield (507) and Decatur at the very bottom (515). No Kankakee County municipality was listed on the report.

For mid-sized cities, WalletHub’s report found Springfield had the fourth slowest growth rate.

Bloomington was the second to lowest job growth at No. 492. Decatur and Peoria tied Shreveport, Louisiana, for the bottom slot in job growth. Peoria was also tied at the bottom for worst regional GDP growth.