 |
| Caterpillar plant, Peoria Heights, Illinois |
The news that Illinois won't be a site for the manufacturing facility that Caterpillar Inc. plans to build in North America was met with disappointment but also determination by area officials who had hoped to land the factory for central Illinois.Click here to read the letter from Caterpillar.
"I was disappointed but not surprised," said Tom O'Neill, chairman of the Peoria County Board. "I got a call from Caterpillar Tuesday afternoon explaining that (CEO) Doug Oberhelman had wanted to let us know in advance because of all the work put in by our group that Caterpillar wasn’t going to locate anywhere in Illinois."
"I knew up front that Doug was looking for more from the state of Illinois in the way of business incentives," said O'Neill.
In a letter to Peoria County Board members sent Tuesday, Caterpillar said, “Previously documented concerns about the business climate and overall fiscal health of the state of Illinois still would have made it impractical for us to select your community for the project."
I certainly don't support sweetheart tax deals such as the ones handed out by Governor Pat Quinn and the General Assembly for Sears and the CME Group, but "Cat" is right to be concerned about "previously documented concerns about the business climate and overall fiscal health of the state of Illinois."
Last year, with no Republican support, Illinois raised its personal income tax by two-thirds and its corporate income tax by nearly half. While unemployment has gone down in most states since then, it's creeped higher here. And the Prairie State still is burdened by the same amount of debt--$8 billion.
The new Cat plant will create 1,400 jobs in the Tar Heel State.
Related post:
Ronald Reagan Trail: Peoria Heights
Technorati tags:
business 
economy 
news 
government 
politics 
Peoria 
Caterpillar 
illinois politics 
Illinois 
Patrick Quinn 
pat quinn 
Democrats government 
democrat
No comments:
Post a Comment