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Local: Cat needs to come clean on post-referendum plans

Whenever the movers and shakers want to gin up support for some make-work, economics development project — like the riverfront museum project — they start telling people that this is something Caterpillar wants. The thinking is that if Peoria doesn’t improve the quality of life for its white-collar employees, the company might, just might, pick up stakes and move elsewhere. Sometimes they just state out of the blue that this or that must happen because it will make Cat happy and help lengthen their roots here in Peoria.

The other day, Mark L. Johnson, Project Manager for Caterpillar, are exchanging comments in a post over at Peoria Illinoisan.

I’m tryinvg to get him to say — one way or another — whether or not there are any plans or discussion at Caterpillar about moving the4 company’s world headquarters if this referendum fails.

I think it’s all B.S. though. Caterpillar is NOT going to go to the expense of moving the entire company elsewhere because they could force taxpayers to cough up a few million during a recession.

But Johnson wouldn’t admit to anything.

I think Caterpillar wants the Peoria area to be scared to death Caterpillar will move.

This entry was posted on March 16, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Local with tags , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “Local: Cat needs to come clean on post-referendum plans”

  1.   anotherexjser Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 2:51 am

    The notion that Caterpillar would make any sort of strategic decision based on the museum referendum is ludicrous.

  2.   diane vespa Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am

    Hey Billy, what part of this reply by Mark Johnson on PI’s blog don’t you understand?

    Ok, Mr. Dennis, I’ll say it “authoritatively”, Caterpillar Inc. is not spreading the story, rumor, information, whatever you want to call it that the company would move it’s headquarters out of Peoria if the sales tax referendum is defeated. It’s actually another example of how ridiculous this discussion has become, to even suppose that the company would incure the expense of relocating just because the citizens of Peoria County have turned down an offer from the company of over $55 million to improve the community. End of discussion.

  3.   admin Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 9:46 am

    I both understand the comment and welcome it, as it shoots down an argument being spread by some museum backers.

    And this comment from Mr.Johnson:

    http://peoriaillinoisan.blogpeoria.com/2009/03/09/all-comments-must-be-phrased-in-the-form-of-a-question-unless-you-support-the-museum/comment-page-1/#comment-139930

    Was made after I published this post.

  4.   11Bravo Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 10:40 am

    Even if it did intend to move or consider moving as a result of a tax referendum, why should CAT feel compelled to tell anyone anyway? They are a private business.

  5.   idonotknowme Says:
    March 16th, 2009 at 10:48 pm

    Johnson is the same dipshit that said the CAT visitor center would “not return a single penny to a single shareholder”. If I was in charge of cutting costs at CAT, this guy would be on my list of cuts.