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Illinois senator and gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey said the high cost of living in Illinois needs to be adjusted and something needs to be done about businesses leaving the state.

"We can fight for tax incentives for small businesses and do something to improve our public safety. When you don't have public safety, these businesses aren't going to be here. People here working need to feel protected and as if this is a place where they can safely raise their families. Finally, we need to do something about the high cost of living here. That's another backbreaker and something we need to address," Bailey said.

Billionaire Ken Griffin, formerly the wealthiest Illinois resident, has moved to Florida, and he's taking hedge fund Citadel and market-maker Citadel Securities with him, Market Watch reported. 

"Chicago will continue to be important to the future of Citadel, as many of our colleagues have deep ties to Illinois," Griffin wrote in a letter to employees. "Over the past year, however, many of our Chicago teams have asked to relocate to Miami, New York and our other offices around the world." According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Griffin is among the top 50 wealthiest people in the world.

Caterpillar reported on June 14 that it is also shifting its headquarters from Deerfield, Illinois to Irving, Texas, according to a press release. 

"We believe it's in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move, which supports Caterpillar's strategy for profitable growth as we help our customers build a better, more sustainable world," said Chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby.

When Bailey was asked about the main factors that are driving these big companies out of state, he replied, “It's the high worker's comp cost. Unfortunately, here in Illinois, those costs are out of control and with Democrats refusing to pay off the unemployment insurance fund, these will only get worse. You couple that with all the other issues, and as great of a state as Illinois is, there aren’t a lot of reasons for businesses to stay or come here.”

Boeing announced in May that it is transferring its headquarters from Chicago to a suburb of Washington, D.C., NBC Chicago reported. 

"We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia," Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said in a statement. "The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders, and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent."

Chief Executive magazine conducted a survey of around 700 business owners from every state and ranked Illinois 48th overall, meaning it is the third-worst state in the country for business, The Center Square reported. The only two other states that have ranked worse than Illinois are New York and California. Texas, Florida and Tennessee were ranked as the top states for doing business. 

"We're too corrupt. Our taxes are way too high. We have way too many regulations and we have massive debts, and that is plenty of reason enough for companies to not want to locate in Illinois, not to mention the state is shrinking in population so it's not a growth state to put your business in," said Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski.