As is typical in many communities, the city of Joliet has offered tax incentives for a developer desiring to build commercial enterprises in the area, which will eventually benefit the city. Unfortunately, the city also restricts developers who take advantages of the cities largesse (in the form of these tax breaks) to using all-union labor. Thus, the developer’s profits and the artificially inflated wages of union employees are picked from the pockets of Joliet’s tax-paying citizens. Everyone likes tax breaks and developer Hospitality Guru Group is no different. The group has proposed building two new hotels, totaling 200 rooms, connected to a conference center, a restaurant, and a fitness center. The project was supposed to break ground at the start of summer in 2014. Construction has yet to begin. Even with the tax incentives, the cost of all-union labor is just far too high. Hospitality Guru has asked the city to either increase the tax incentive or decrease the union labor requirement to make it more feasible for them to invest; all this to no avail. The construction industry, especially in areas of high union density, is one industry where union labor costs are typically much higher than for non-union labor. This recent example from Joliet highlights the fact that the solution for developers attempting to execute profitable projects is often laid at the feet of taxpayers, who are totally unaware that they are being forced to fund union-labor premiums.
