Illinois Persuades Motorola to Keep HQ in Libertyville

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 6, 2011 6:40PM

Gov. Quinn announced today that the state is giving Motorola Mobility $100 million in tax credits to keep its headquarters in suburban Libertyville.

Now before you think Quinn just said "here, have your tax incentives," Rich Miller provides context so that the roll may be slowed. the tax incentives will be meted out over the next ten years. In exchange, Motorola Mobility is committed to spending $500 million in research and development related to the 3,000 jobs at Motorola's plant over the next three years. Another nice tidbit, per Miller:

"The cash is a tax credit applied to the company’s annual withholding tax liability or its annual corporate income tax liability. However, Gov. Quinn did not announce a corresponding budget cut to make up for the revenue loss. Then again, the revenue loss to the state would’ve been quite big if the company had left - not to mention the hit to the state’s reputation."

The Sun-Times interviewed two analysts who concurred that this deal is huge for Illinois.

Morningstar analyst Joseph Beaulieu said, “Given that CEO Sanjay Jha has a second home in Southern California and given that the San Francisco area is home to some of the top technology companies in the United States, this is a big win for Illinois.”

Ed Longanecker, executive director of Naperville-based tech trade association TechAmerica, said Illinois’ efforts to keep Motorola Mobility and to create an Illinois Innovation Council are welcome efforts to accelerate technology and economic growth.

Jha had been meeting with California and Texas officials about relocating Motorola Mobility to either of those states. Take that, Chris Christie.