NEW IPO Logo - by Charles Larry Home Search Browse About IPO Staff Links

JERRY COSENTINO
A Sweet Deal For Illinois:
Linked Deposit Funds Expand Farley Candy

By JERRY COSENTINO, State Treasurer

What could be sweeter than a deal to help a home-grown business thrive in Illinois? When the deal keeps state money invested to benefit Illinois taxpayers, nothing could be sweeter!

With funds made available through the Illinois State Treasurer's Linked Deposit Program, the Farley Candy Company has decided to expand their operations. An additional manufacturing plant, located in Melrose Park, will be renovated to be their fifth location in Illinois.

Headquartered in Chicago, Farley now operates four manufacturing facilities with more than 500,000 square feet and has two warehouse sites of more than 300,000 square feet. As the country's largest private label candy manufacturer and second largest producer of bag candy, the refurbished 144,000 square foot plant will enable Farley to create 300 new jobs in addition to their current workforce of nearly 1,400 Illinois employees.

Farley's new operation will be especially welcome in Melrose Park, where, like much of western and southern Cook County, jobs are in short supply.

As Farley Candy Company grew from a business employing only 200 in 1980 to its current size, other states approached the company with expansion offers. Under the Linked Deposit Program, the Treasurer's Office and the LaSalle National Bank crafted a loan with an interest rate slightly below the current prime rate. This financial package, along with a Department of Commerce and Community Affairs Subordinated Loan, gives Farley the opportunity to continue growing here — keeping jobs, tax dollars and economic strength in Illinois.

The Illinois State Treasurer's Linked Deposit Program enables the state to make funds available for investment in Illinois. Under the program, which was started in 1981, the state deposits its money with financial institutions willing to link the deposits to loans that fund local projects. The funds are usually used to support construction or expansion of manufacturing facilities (as in the case of Farley Candy), to aid community disaster recovery operations, or provide operating funds for the agricultural community.

The Linked Deposit Program has been a powerful economic development tool throughout Illinois. It has been instrumental in creating thousands of new jobs and in helping to support Illinois agriculture. Linked Deposit is a boon for Illinois Taxpayers — and a sweet deal for Illinois.

For more information about the Illinois State Treasurer's Linked Deposit Program, call Dave Cleverdon in the Chicago office of the State Treasurer at 312/814-3571. •

July 1990 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 5


|Home| |Search| |Back to Periodicals Available| |Table of Contents| |Back to Illinois Municipal Review 1990|
Illinois Periodicals Online (IPO) is a digital imaging project at the Northern Illinois University Libraries funded by the Illinois State Library