Caterpillar CEO's letter talks of leaving Illinois 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 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 encourage you to consider South Dakota as a place for your business to grow and prosper," noted J. Pat Costello, secretary of the South Dakota governor's economic development office. Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman wrote in February to say, "In Nebraska, we balance our budget by controlling spending, not by raising taxes." Republican leaders, who unsuccessfully fought Quinn on the tax hike, say the letter confirms why they were opposed to the increase. "These are the kinds of letters we fear," said Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont. "Even more worrisome are the hundreds of businesses being wooed that we don't know about." Schuh said the tax hike and the state's worker compensation costs on businesses "make Illinois a hostile environment, prime for the picking." http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/article_3c23590c-572a-11e0-afc0-001cc4c002e0.html
I thought Obama said Cat was reversing their layoffs and hiring like crazy just a couple years ago. I wonder how much of our money he is going to give them to keep them in IL?
you think they'll get an "exemption" kind of like the 100's of exemptions given out for the health care law. It might be a good strategy by dems, lets just do whatever we want and if the shit hits the fan, no problem, we'll just give out exemptions. No biggie.
Well, GE got cozy with Obama and now they don't have to pay any income taxes. Same thing might work for Cat. Obama's got Rahm in Chicago now so I'm sure they can cut a deal even on top of a 10 or 20 year ObamaCare exeption.
Cat is relocating... they will let the states wage a bidding war of incentives and tax credits to move their relatively small "world head quarters" operations to the state with the best offer. The bulk of their manufacturing, R & D will continue to relocate in China. http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=176828 The relationship between Caterpillar and China is substantial. Caterpillar employs 6,000 workers in China at 11 different manufacturing plants and several other facilities. In late 2010, Caterpillar announced a new facility that will begin production of mini hydraulic excavators outside Shanghai in 2012 and a new joint venture to design and manufacture hydraulic pumps in the near future.
For all practical purposes CAT has already left. Their new business in China requires all products sold to China be built in China. They have an oppressive two tier pay and benefit structure here in the US which has been in place for years. I say let them go, and tax the shit out of anything they sell here. Some entrepreneur will take their place in this country. Fuck'em !!!!
Turns out CAT's not leaving, and the tax hikes? Well, no mention of a change of plan... "Caterpillar to stay in Illinois after all" http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/05/new...ar_illinois/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin
I'm fairly confident that some backroom deals here in the USSR were arranged to keep them in place. Eventually all the big multi-nationals will play the "threaten to leave" game and not just a particular state, but the country as a whole. The exemption list will grow accordingly and this enormous tax burden will continue to fall on top of the heads of those unfortunate individuals who aren't a member of one of the protected rackets in this country. Get over this left vs right garbage already, it's fodder for the deluded masses.