A carpetbagging development agency from Florida is lobbying Illinois businesses to move to the Miami area, using Illinois' proposed progressive income tax structure as a conversation piece.

Christina Crespi with the Miami Downtown Development Authority said her trip to Illinois in late June included talks with a number of financial firms in the state interested in a major city with lower taxes in a state with no income tax.

“A house here versus a house in Chicago would be double in income taxes,” she said.