North Cook News

Republican House candidate Katy Dolan Baumer isn’t surprised Illinois earned a failing grade from small-business owners in a recent survey, given hurdles entrepreneurs in the state have to clear to keep their doors open, she said.

"The path to small business entrepreneurship in Illinois is multi-layered and often difficult to navigate," Baumer told the North Cook News. "It includes insurance regulations, wage and prevailing wage regulations, sick leave regulations and laws, family leave laws, HIPPA regulations, data protection laws, licenses … the list goes on and on and oftentimes is doubled as the small business then has to contend and comply with local municipal regulations.”

That is daunting to small business owners in Illinois, Dolan Baumer, who is running for Illinois’ 44th District said. 

Katy Dolan Baumer

"It is a wonder that people can even dip their toe into this swamp of alligators circling for their piece of a new business," she said. "Small businesses do not have the resources nor the time … to do, let alone, sort out all that is necessary to get their small business going. They do not have a cadre of attorneys or staff to move them from this quagmire into operating their businesses successfully."

With more than 7,500 entrepreneurs and small business owners participating in the nationwide survey, Thumbtack.com found that Illinois placed last for its level of business-friendliness.

The state also received a failing grade for its regulations, taxes, labor and licensure. Small business in the state shouldn't have so many hurdles to clear, Baumer said.

"In Illinois, we need to streamline the process and the laws surrounding opening a business here to make it easier for a business to succeed," she said. "My opponent has already said that he would raise our taxes — taxes paid by individuals as well as by businesses, making Illinois that much easier to leave to another place where regulations and taxes are friendly to businesses and residents.”

Baumer, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary in March, is making her second run against Rep. Fred Crespo (D-Hoffman Estates), who defeated her in 2016.

Illinois' 44th state House District, which Crespo has represented since 2007, is entirely within Cook County, and includes parts of Streamwood and Hoffman Estates.