Caterpillar CEO's letter talks of leaving Illinois

[The Northerner]

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 on 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 on 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.

"I have been called, 'cornered' in meetings and 'wined and dined' -- the heat is on," Oberhelman wrote. "Before, I never really considered living anywhere else and certainly never considered the possibility of Caterpillar relocating. But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day."

Read more: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/article_3c23590c-572a-11e0-afc0-001cc4c002e0.html

[yourout]

1. In other words......."give me money".

[walldude]

2. Gotta avoid those taxes... the CEO will be pissed if he only makes

10 million this year...

[wilt the stilt]

3. this is what we do in Amrica now

we try to steal businesses from each other. Not create jobs but steal businesses. This is the business model of the south. We saw this in the sixties and seventies.

[Brickbat]

12. Exactly -- states can't wait to scab on each other so they can run back and triumphantly claim they

created "jobs" -- all while throwing huge tax breaks and easements at the company. And then they wonder why they're in financial straights. It is to scream.

[abelenkpe]

4. Well

I for one hope the state tells Catepillar to F off.

What some other state is going to give him more breaks? More incentives? In this economy? They have a lot of nerve.

[christx30]

26. Texas would be

very friendly toward them, and would welcome the jobs. Come on down!

[gkhouston]

29. And that welcome mat will be paid for by slashing the number of teachers in schools.

To hell with that.

[christx30]

40. Maybe with more people working

there would be a bigger tax base which we can use to fund Texas schools.
So come on down, Doug. Plenty of abandoned factories in Austin that you can convert to make bulldozers. I'll buy you your first meal at Kerby Lane Cafe, in exchange for a decent job. Tired of my low paying tech support job. I have a wife and 2 kids to support.

[gkhouston]

45. Caterpillar isn't big enough to offset what Perry's already done to our schools.

And I wouldn't count on their pay being any better than what you're getting now. If they actually came to Texas, they'd be doing it so they could offer shit wages in our "right to work" state.

[christx30]

46. Every little bit helps

and I'm only making $9 an hour. Would be better somewhere else. been looking for something better for a year now. This isn't cutting it. We need more companies to leave places like California and Illinois and move down here. Make Texas an industrial powerhouse.

[Horse with no Name]

5. What a whore. n/t

[LeftofObama]

6. Don't let the door hit ya on the way out Mr. Oberhelman

It's time we stop catering to these whiney asses!

[Bigmack]

7. No offense to the states courting Cat...

but some companies have moved to states in an unnamed region and found the workers not as.... trainable as workers from the better educated states.

I am, of course, not talking native intelligence... whatever that is, but rather education level and ability to pick up new skills.

Good luck, Cat... I hope you're not stepping on your own dick.

[Brickbat]

13. This, right here.

:thumbsup:

[xchrom]

8. Blackmail. Nt

[w8liftinglady]

9. big f%cking shock... Texas is one of the possible states

you know, our great "Right-to-work" state.


I'm sorry,guys.

[AllyCat]

10. How does his personal income tax affect what is best for Caterpiller?

This is why changes to the laws need to be on a federal level. The rats just move elsewhere leaving crumbs for the rest of us.

[Oasis_]

16. ??

A Federal law prohibiting companies from relocating? I guarantee you that wouldn't survive review. Governor Quinn advanced legislation that raised taxes. This is the blowback--the byproduct.

If an individual or family decided to move our of their city to another as a result of an oppressive tax burden, should they somehow be prohibited from doing so?

I'm of the opinion that Gov Quinn made a major mistake in raising taxes, but ultimately it's the choice of the individual business if they wish to stay and pay higher fees or look into taking their jobs elsewhere.

Oasis

[Canuckistanian]

17. Wait a minute

Are we talking about corporate taxes or personal income taxes?

[AllyCat]

21. The owner of the business in this article talks about "income taxes"

which sounds like personal tax rates as being the reason he is considering moving Caterpillar. He then says it is in the interest of the company...but I feel that he is more concerned about his personal tax rate, not the company. Actually, there is a lot to his moving the company...and it all comes down to money.

[joeglow3]

36. Corporate tax rates were increased as well as individual rates. nt

[AllyCat]

20. I don't mean a federal law against relocating.

I'm talking about federal taxes on huge amounts of income so that moving to a lower tax burden state is less attractive. States are entitled to levy their own taxes, but when these huge corps pay little to no tax at the federal level, it seems to embolden them to make the states do the same. They pay next to nothing and we pay it all. They use the courts, the roads, the public utilities, etc and pay almost nothing to maintain them...we pay the rest. And in return they ship jobs overseas or keep them here with no benefits, low wages, and unsafe working conditions. These tax raises seem to hurt small business owners the most, never the multi-billion dollar operations.

[rurallib]

28. states only have so many choices when revenue doesn't meet

payout. The regressive idea is that every state be bankrupted and forced to walk away from pensions, sell off state property and privatize state responsibilities.
On the one hand we have Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, Iowa, Nevada, Puerto Rico etc. On the other we have only Illinois that has stood up and said let's raise taxes just a bit.
Corporations have been raping taxpayers for years. Maybe, just maybe they should look around and see if they do not have some stake in their local community worth a few extra dollars. I have no doubt they get out much more than they pay in in taxes.
BTW - I have skin in Cat, so this is personal.

[socialist_n_TN]

34. See my post #30.........

nm

[truebrit71]

42. What was Quinn's other option? Go broke? One of many differences between Quinn and Bill RW Brady...

..was that Quinn said he was going to do it, Brady said he wouldn't, but would have had to do it anyway...

Illinois is broke, taxes were going up whether the political ads said so or not..

And this CEO can go take a flying fuck at the moon...go ahead and leave you greedy fucking pig..

[KamaAina]

47. What was Quinn supposed to do? Slash services? Bust unions?

That been the answer in most other states. Good for him!

[BeHereNow]

11. Just as their stock is showing record gains...

How convenient.
Time for them to move off shore I suppose.
Take the money and run, you fuckers.

BHN

[Horse with no Name]

15. This is where the states "fail" willingly or unwillingly

IF I had to give "concessions" and "tax breaks" to a company to park their asses in my state, I probably would.

However, there would be a ONE-TIME negotiation--before they set up shop.

AND there would be an ironclad clause that stated IF they pulled up stakes and relocated--out of state, out of country, etc...that every single solitary red cent of taxpayer money would be due and payable 30 days before they closed shop AND if not paid...a lien would be put on the business.

The little cash-stores contracts have more legal teeth than these types of agreements.

[socialist_n_TN]

35. See my post #30.........

nm

[Overseas]

14. So disgusting. Wonderful "free trade" -- Race To The Bottom.

So he's going off to a state that will slash social safety nets to lower corporate taxes.

Golly gee, gotta make more and more profit for the shareholders and chief executives. They can live in gated communities or overseas so they don't have to see the homeless. They can afford fancy medical care so they need not see the overcrowded emergency rooms.

[madrchsod]

18. pack up and leave while in full production?

build a brand new multi billion dollar production facility because of a 2.+% tax hike?

ya, i guess that would a wise decision that the shareholders would love.

[madrchsod]

19. oh ya,sec of transportation ray la hood is from peoria,illinois

[spanone]

22. it's called extortion

[Stinky The Clown]

23. You . . . . Mother . . . . Fucking . . . . Extortionist

[Initech]

41. Seriously, how is this not illegal?

[jmowreader]

24. I am glad I am not a Cat shareholder

I am not sure what it's going to cost to build a new factory in the South (which is where these carpetbaggers all tend to run to) to make the enormous things Caterpillar makes, but there's no way it can be less than the cost of paying the increased taxes.

[Mr Rabble]

25. Caterpillar has a long history of doing this.

In the 1990's Caterpillar was responsible for breaking the back of union workers in Decatur, Illinois. This was a massive blow to labor in the US, and was a good example of the Clinton era economic policies.
At the time, we were "transitioning to an information economy"...which has obviously gone swimmingly.
As one part of the Cat management strategy, they were threatening to build "excess labor capacity" in other states, while demanding all sorts of concessions from the state government.

As an aside-
When you hear conservatives talk about getting power down to the states, and away from the federal level- this is exactly the reason why they want that done. Even a mid-size company can push around a state government by threatening to move. If Caterpillar threatened the federal govt with moving to Mexico, it probably wouldn't go nearly as well as threatening to move to another state.

Back to recent history-
In 2009, Caterpillar announced that they were going to lay off around 20% of their workforce. They said that in order to remain competitive they has to do this and so on.
They did not mention that the company had profits that year of more than $250,000,000.

So, Cat did in fact lay off huge numbers of people, destroying countless lives, but they did increase profit...

These people are scum.

A really good look at the history of Caterpillar's disdain for democracy and the labor movement can be heard in this talk:

http://www.heroturko.org/n/noam-chomsky-expose-of-exploitative-mechanisms-2-13-96-mp3/

[calimary]

27. How about enacting a HUGE, MIND-NUMBING tax PENALTY for vacating the state for cheaper places?

If nothing else, it'll provide the vacated state a little padding.

Our business taxes ARE going to go up, but that's nothing compared to if you decide to pick up and relocate...

Make it cheaper and less painful to stay, because the relocation penalty is literally crippling.

[socialist_n_TN]

32. See my post #30.........

nm

[socialist_n_TN]

30. Fine let him leave. Then let the state of IL take over.......

the physical plants STILL ON ILLINOIS PROPERTY under eminent domain and run the plant as a worker's co-op in competition with Caterpiller.

[calimary]

38. Hey, as e.d. hill once said to bill o'reilly - "yeah! That's fair!"

I like it.

They're always talking about incentives. Incentivizing. Let's give them one of OURS!

DUer drm604 on another thread suggested this:

"We'll offer you a special tax rate to come into, or stay in, our state, but if you leave within the next 50 years you suddenly owe us all of the money you would have payed over the years if you'd been taxed like everyone else."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4790407&mesg_id=4790588

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

39. What if Caterpillar owns patents on their designs or production processes?

Caterpillar would probably take their tooling with them anyways.
Then all the state would have is a few building/warehouses sitting on some land.

[socialist_n_TN]

43. Fuck it. Eminent domain those too............

If Walker can ignore the law in WI, Quinn can ignore the law in IL. ANYTHING physical STAYS in state as a PART of eminent domain.

[Yavin4]

31. If They Leave ILL Because of Taxes, They'll Leave Wherever They Move Next

Because of labor costs, etc. IOW, they're looking for the lowest tax and labor cost state to do business. ILL would be better off in the long run without them. The amount of additional social spending on housing, health care, etc. that the state would have to spend more than makes up for the loss of tax revenue.

[rucky]

33. I hope Catepillar can find that perfect place

with no taxes and world-class schools and communities. And unicorns that poop rainbows.

[merbex]

44. LOL, you nailed it and your response is one I can't wait to use

on some brain dead GOP-bot, or on our side ~ neo-liberal

[kenny blankenship]

37. Tariffs are the answer.

You leave the US, expect prohibitive tariffs on your wares when you want them imported back here. Calculate on that, Asshole.

As for corporations moving from state to state creating a race to the bottom effect, combating that will be much harder. States can't impose tariffs. But they can boycott manufacturers.