The Illinois Technology Partnership, Chicago IT Roundtable and Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center wrote a letter to the editor at the Chicago Tribune in response to the editorial, “The jobs crisis“.  To follow was our submission, which can also be found on the Chicago Tribune’s Web site.

Creating jobs
January 20, 2010

With unemployment at a record high and few new jobs being created in Illinois, the Chicago Tribune Jan. 8 editorial “The jobs crisis” correctly points out our state has a major problem.

For too long, state policies have not taken into consideration the importance of writing legislation in a way that attracts investment to Illinois and creates an environment that allows companies to grow and sustain.

The technology sector offers one such example. While it is one of the few industries that has continued to create jobs throughout the recession, innovative new start-ups are not going to choose a state that has unfriendly regulatory policies. Just as important, we need to create an awareness of the critical role technology plays in all sectors of our economy — from finance to professional services and from education to retail. In these fields, technology helps to produce jobs that create jobs and increase the velocity of our economy.

This year the Illinois General Assembly has a chance to positively impact the technology industry in our state, and with it, all companies and industries that depend on technology, by modernizing the state’s Telecommunications Act. Telecommunications is no longer only about phone companies and residential consumers. Today it is the essential backbone of our economy and the entire business community has a great deal at stake.

Updating this legislation will create incentive for private-sector investment in broadband deployment, which will spur job creation, create access for new communities and entrepreneurs, and spur innovation of new products, services and jobs right here in Illinois.

—Barry Saltzman, board member, Chicago IT Roundtable
—Jason Felger, executive vice president, Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center
—Lindsay Mosher, interim director, Illinois Technology Partnership

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