Editorial: The great Ken Griffin exit and what it does and does not portend

At the end of this week, moving vans will block Chicago’s alleys and all of those college hunks, man-with-a vans and two guys with trucks will find themselves gainfully employed. Chicago is a huge city. People come and go, each and every day. They take a job out East, hanker for the mountains or maybe, bones wearying and climate change rationalized, they head to warmer places.

But the voluntary exit of one individual, Ken Griffin, has sucked up more attention in recent days than anyone we can remember.

There are two reasons. One is that Griffin, founder of Citadel, is extraordinarily wealthy ($25 billion says Forbes), so much so that his fortune greatly exceeds that of our billionaire governor. His departure has a meaningful impact on the amount of money Illinois collects each year in taxes.

At some $200 million, Griffin’s personal tax bill is more than 1% of the total revenue Illinois draws from income taxes. When you think Illinois has a population of close to 13 million, that’s a remarkable impact and indicative of Griffin’s extraordinary financial success.

The other reason is that Griffin, with whom we met last month, has been using his potential departure as a bargaining chip to urge reform of the things he believes are very wrong with Illinois. His primary concern, as articulated in numerous forums, is the rise in violent crime and its impact on the quality of life for residents and also its detrimental impact on hiring people at places such as Citadel, which must compete for talent in the global marketplace.

To put it mildly, Griffin believes that the state’s leadership, especially Gov. J.B. Pritzker, is inattentive to these issues which Griffin sees as raging so far out of control as to undermine the city he loves.

That’s why Griffin has spent a lot of money trying to defeat Pritzker by supporting the candidacy of Richard Irvin in the Republican primary for governor. How well that investment worked out will be revealed Tuesday night, but we suspect Irvin has not been all that Griffin, a very sophisticated political player, had hoped.

Whomever the Republican nominee ends up being will have a tough fight this November against Pritzker, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent actions, a boon to Pritzker’s electoral chances, and we’ll wager Griffin is not so enthused about candidate Darren Bailey, who has not expressed much interest in the concerns of secular, corporate Chicago.

Does Griffin’s exit matter? On one level, he is just one individual pursuing his best interests that he now believes lie outside of the state. He is just one of nearly 13 million Illinoisans, all with the right to expect attention and care from their elected leaders.

Griffin, of course, will be just fine in Florida. And Citadel will retain some employees here. All of that is true. And as some defensive political leaders have rushed to say, none of this is a big surprise. Griffin didn’t need to leak any draft decision to foreshadow what he intend to do. It came out of his own mouth. Loud and clear.

But while Griffin’s ideological foes have been saying various versions of “don’t let the door hit you ...,” we don’t share that reaction. The violent crime problem is real and there is no question that Griffin’s drawing of attention to the international perception of a decaying city has been valuable, as has his tacit warning to Pritzker to not let any national presidential ambitions and the boxes that must be checked in feasance to the constituencies of Democratic Party get in the way of his sworn duty to the people of Illinois, including the business community. A counter argument coming from a credible source is healthy for this state. Griffin would surely have hated running for governor, but he’d have been a far better candidate than anyone on the current Republican slate.

And the state won’t just miss the tax receipts. Griffin has been a notable philanthropist in Illinois, especially in Chicago, funding a variety of causes, institutions and urban amenities, especially during the Rahm Emanuel era. His total personal giving exceeds $600 million; the other employees at Citadel have given a whole lot more. The University of Chicago Crime Lab, the Shedd Aquarium and Museum of Science and Industry aren’t glad Griffin’s going.

Griffin has not said any of that giving in Illinois will continue once he and his companies moves to Florida, and you can hardly blame him.

We’d also point out that the exit of Boeing (and with it the important media reference “the Chicago-based Boeing ...”), Caterpillar and a regional office for Yelp have all occurred in Illinois within a matter of just a few weeks.

There are valid arguments that any single one of these is not massively catastrophic, but when taken with Griffin’s and Citadel’s departure, this is a warning sign of trouble, of a city and state that needs to pay more attention to its sagging identity as a global city and to the quality of life it offers its citizens.

On the positive side of the ledger, we have the snack division of Kellogg and a new casino. At best, both would have been better as additions rather than replacements.

So, we wish you well Mr. Griffin. Thank you for your generosity to this city and state, though we would have preferred that you had chosen to stay and fight on. You cut through some of our self-denial and happy talk.

See ya’ down the road.

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