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Caterpillar CEO's letter talks of leaving Illinois (Taxes too high)
Pantagraph ^ | March 25, 2011 | By Kurt Erickson | Lee Springfield Bureau

Posted on 03/25/2011 8:10:52 PM PDT by Islander7

SPRINGFIELD -- The chairman and CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. is raising the specter of moving the heavy equipment maker out of Illinois.

In a letter sent March 21 to Gov. Pat Quinn, Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four other states have approached the company about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.

"I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest," Oberhelman wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Lee Enterprises Springfield bureau. "The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business and I'd like to work with you to change that."

Oberhelman said he's being actively courted to move.

(Excerpt) Read more at pantagraph.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: caterpillar; democrats; illinois; marxists; peoria; taxes
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To: grey_whiskers

Thanks g_w! ... I think...


21 posted on 03/25/2011 8:46:30 PM PDT by Lando Lincoln
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To: steve86
What a stupid bunch of ASSes Boeing heads were for moving there.

Makes you wonder. If the machinist union drove them there it seems management may have been outsmarted.
22 posted on 03/25/2011 8:47:41 PM PDT by microgood
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To: smokingfrog

There’s not one over in Sherman/Dennison yet.
Maybe they can fix that.

There is Terrex heavy mining equipment plant.


23 posted on 03/25/2011 8:49:07 PM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: Islander7

I wish this will be terrible only for the state of Illinois. Imagine how disastrous this would be to the city of Peoria, what that would do to their already depressed real estate prices, etc.

Quinn is THE worst governor of the entire union. He is OWNED by the state worker union. Even before he got elected to his first complete term (he was finishing the term of the other ethically challenged Democrat Governor Blogayovich), he RAISED the salary of the state union employees by 14%, and at the same time proposed the 50% tax increase. One of the state reps ran for election on the platform that she would vote against the income tax increase. She lost her re-election bid. During the lame-duck session, the tax increase was introduced, and the same state rep voted for it! And what do you know, she was offered and was about to start at a new position working for Quinn! The outcry for such an obvious quid-pro-quo corrupt deal, that she changed her mind about taking the job.

Even AFTER knowing about the upcoming tax increase, Illinois voted Quinn. Even though I live in Illinois, and my property’s equity has been going down the drain, if Illinois gets clobbered financially because of the tax increase, it would be a good lesson to the parasites who voted for that corrupt a-hole.


24 posted on 03/25/2011 8:50:32 PM PDT by winner3000
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To: steve86

Didn’t they just move offices there? They can move those in a holiday weekend.
Now after the tanker contract is sealed, maybe they will.


25 posted on 03/25/2011 8:51:56 PM PDT by IrishCatholic (No local Communist or Socialist Party Chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing!)
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To: steve86
What a stupid bunch of ASSes Boeing heads were for moving there.

The story I always heard was that a senior exec's wife loved the opera and thought highly of the one in Chicago, and her husband did what the boss said. Of course, that may have come from the folks who wanted (and got) a new opera house in Dallas.

26 posted on 03/25/2011 8:54:31 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: MrEdd

There’s plenty of empty plants in Sherman.


27 posted on 03/25/2011 8:58:28 PM PDT by Despot of the Delta
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To: Islander7

I work there every day, in East Peoria. Building tractors.

This article is, of course, worrying. And entirely predictable.


28 posted on 03/25/2011 8:59:11 PM PDT by News Junkie ( Reason and Faith)
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To: Lando Lincoln
Just thought you'd like to be notified that a local event got noticed on FR.

No offense to you, of course, but I *would* prefer that Caterpillar make it as a going concern...

Cheers!

29 posted on 03/25/2011 8:59:40 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: winner3000
Even AFTER knowing about the upcoming tax increase, Illinois voted Quinn.

3 counties voted for Quinn, Peoria County was not one of them.

30 posted on 03/25/2011 9:01:11 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Of course Obama loves his country. The thing is, Sarah loves mine.)
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To: Islander7
Oberhelman said he's being actively courted to move.

Caterpillar is already building a new plant in Southern Indiana and it's no secret (here anyways..) that Indiana is courting CAT to move out of Illinois.

Pity, CAT's a good employer, their moving out of Illinois is going to decimate one of Illinois' finer small towns, Peoria. I've been there the last few years, it really is a nice town.

31 posted on 03/25/2011 9:01:23 PM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: grey_whiskers

No offense taken!! This state and its leadership are punchlines to very sick jokes.


32 posted on 03/25/2011 9:03:22 PM PDT by Lando Lincoln
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To: mlocher
The Land of Lincoln is slowly shrinkin’.

Not slowly at all. 7 other mid to large size companies have already moved out of Illinois, the most notable is Jimmy Johns. As soon as business taxes went up Jimmy John packed up his family and moved them to Florida so he wouldn't personally have to pay the higher state income tax. Jimmy John's board of directors is expected to approve moving their corporate headquarters out of southern Illinois to another lower tax state somewhere down south.

Another company, I believe a golf club maker in the NW suburbs re-located to Kenosha, Wisconsin taking some 400+ jobs with them in the last few weeks too.

Granted, the Dem's in this God forsaken state are too effing stupid to realize they caused these jobs to leave....

33 posted on 03/25/2011 9:04:48 PM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: News Junkie
I work there every day, in East Peoria. Building tractors.

I've worked in every building in E.P. and some that aren't even there any more.

34 posted on 03/25/2011 9:05:09 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Of course Obama loves his country. The thing is, Sarah loves mine.)
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To: steve86
Have to realize, Boeing is so used to sucking the federal tit that they never even thought about the State they were in.

Too bad, their loss. CAT has the opportunity to do the right thing.

35 posted on 03/25/2011 9:06:35 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: smokingfrog

You have that right, all the lowest tax states have an advantage in wooing business away. I hope that the high tax states keep on raising the cost of doing business, Texas will make off with all the blue chip companies.


36 posted on 03/25/2011 9:06:57 PM PDT by 2001convSVT (That Beck guy was right about gold, too.)
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To: winner3000
Even AFTER knowing about the upcoming tax increase, Illinois voted Quinn.

I live in Illinois too, it made me absolutely SICK that Quinn got (re)elected but then again look at the PARASITES that infest the City of Chicago, you know it was them "urban dwellers" that did it.

37 posted on 03/25/2011 9:07:36 PM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Islander7

>>”I stand ready to help convince you to relocate or expand in the fiscally conservative, low-tax Lone Star State,” wrote Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a Jan. 24 letter.<<

I am headed there this year. From “more people in the cart than pulling it” California.

I will miss the state of my birth but these people are nucking futz.


38 posted on 03/25/2011 9:10:04 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats. /P. J. O'Rourke, 1991)
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To: Recovering_Democrat

Michigan is close and has a healthy workforce and several large factories laying bare......just saying.......Grand Rapids would be a great place to come to.......


39 posted on 03/25/2011 9:10:35 PM PDT by Michigan Bowhunter
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To: Islander7

Doug, Barney Fife down here in Mayberry, North Carolina....Yeah, Mayberry. We understand, Doug, that you're not happy with them tax rates in Illinoise. Listen, Doug, we want you to know that we got Illinoise beat, yeah, by a country mile. We got over 7%, compared to your stinkin' 5% up there. So me and the sheriff here wanted you to come down, set a spell, and try life away from the big city. How's that sound, Doug?

40 posted on 03/25/2011 9:15:48 PM PDT by DeFault User
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