The Washington-based non-profit organization Good Jobs First has released a detailed study on state job subsidies in Illinois. The report finds that these incentives overwhelmingly flow to affluent suburbs in the Chicago Region over those areas hardest hit by plant closings and job flight.

Gold Collar: How State Job Subsidies in the Chicago Region Favor Affluent Suburbs, looked at 780 subsidies granted by the state of Illinois from 1990 through 2004, which had a total value of USD 1.2 billion. It faults the state of Illinois for its unbalanced distribution of employment subsidies in the Chicago region.

Greg LeRoy, co-author of the study and executive director of Good Jobs First, said "Chicago and the poorer parts of Cook County have been severely shortchanged by the State of Illinois when it comes to economic development."

Between 1990 and 2004, expenditure on job subsidies in Chicago averaged USD 64 per capita, compared with the USD 265 per capita received by the "white-collar counties," the five relatively affluent counties that surround Chicago's Cook Country.

According to the study, "rather than promoting urban revitalization and offsetting the forces promoting sprawl, these government incentives have exacerbated the problem and worsened economic inequality in the region."

This latest study comes on the heels of two previous studies conducted by Good Jobs First, which focused on Michigan and Minnesota. According to LeRoy, the current findings were consistent with those of the previous studies.