Peoria Pundit

First, I want to thank Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens and his family for their many contributions of time and money to this community. Second, I want to state that Mr. Owens has every right to support the museum with his own money, and he has every right to exercise his freedom of speech to encourage employees of Caterpillar to vote in favor of the museum tax referendum on April 7. His letter to employees — which many received today — is reprinted below.

But before any Caterpillar employee decides to follow Mr. Owen’s advice, I’d like to exercise my free speech rights and encourage them to visit this site and read the many, many arguments against this tax.

I am not arguing against Caterpillar’s involvement in this community. I have seen how Caterpillar can step in and provide expertise and funding when it feels it is necessary (their help is keeping downtown free of snow is a marvel to see). And I am told that Cat does far more of this sort of thing than other major employers in other nearby communities, and for that I am grateful.

But I would hope that anyone on the fence regarding this tax referendum should note that the generosity of Caterpillar as a corporation and of its personnel does not obligate us as voters to vote the way Mr. Owens suggests, not that he is saying it should.

And I now note than C.J. has posted his comments on the letter.

Mr. Owen’s letter:

Dear Team Caterpillar:

In 2002 my predecessor, Chairman Glen Barton, committed Caterpillar’s support to a new regional museum. Since then the company has supported this project to revitalize the downtown Peoria community. Our involvement has grown from a relatively simple presence in the new museum to the current concept — a separate facility housing a corporate visitor center, called the Caterpillar Experience.

This new riverfront development along with the proposed renovation of the Hotel Pere Marquette and the recent expansion of the Civic Center, should transform the landscape of downtown Peoria. The Museum project specifically will offer tremendous educational and entertainment opportunities to residents throughout Central Illinois.

Peoria County voters now have an opportunity to support the Museum project through a countywide referendum on April 7. The proposed 0.25 percent county sales tax increase will provide critical public funding for the new Museum. As federal and state funding sources have disappeared, this local funding initiative has become the last opportunity for moving this project forward.

If you live in Peoria County and can vote on this referendum, I encourage your support. Without a doubt, this project will make Peoria a better place to live, will make downtown Peoria a better place to work and will help us attract the best and brightest employees for the future.

Please remember to vote on April 7. You’ll find the issue as the last item on the ballot which references “public facilities sales tax.” If you’re going to be out of town on election day, you can take advantage of early voting between March 16 and April 2.

Thank you for your support. This is an important opportunity for the members of Team Caterpillar to make a difference in Peoria.

Sincerely,

James W. Owens

Press release:

MASSIVE GOVERNMENT STIMULUS HAS NOT HELPED CATERPILLAR AS PROMISED

Schock:  While the stimulus bill has not helped workers, it has saddled them and their children with mindboggling additional debt.

Washington D.C. – A little more than a month after passage of the President’s economic stimulus bill, it has become reality that the hype and promises Caterpillar would not proceed with planned layoffs and rehire laid off workers if Congress passed the stimulus bill was inaccurate.

Congress did pass the stimulus bill and the President got everything he wanted from Congress.  Yet, today Caterpillar announced even more layoffs.  These additional layoffs confirm CAT workers were misused by the Administration as justification for the stimulus bill.

“These additional layoffs are a result of the on-going recession,” said Schock.  “Sadly, the false hopes that passage of the stimulus bill would enable them to keep their jobs are now a horrible letdown.  I opposed the stimulus bill because only 6 percent of this massive bill was for infrastructure.  I supported legislation that would have created twice the jobs at half the price, and included more funding for infrastructure that would have increased the demand for Caterpillar machinery.”

“In my speech against passage of the flawed stimulus bill, I said ‘this bill is too big to get it wrong,’ but these layoffs are another sign that they did get this bill wrong,” continued Schock.  “As a result, we have little increased infrastructure construction, more layoffs, dashed hopes, massive wasteful spending and vastly increased debt.”

“I will join the President and colleagues in Congress if they are willing to embark on a sensible agenda that would lead to economic growth,” Schock concluded.  “The challenges we face are too important not to.”

From my inbox:

There is a special “all employees meeting” scheduled for 6:45 AM Tuesday in Mossville building BB [Caterpillar]. This meeting includes “management” employees and had no description, just the admonition that we should make “every effort” to attend.

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.

From Merle Widmer:

Caterpillar cuts 117 more white collar jobs; last day, this Friday. All the while, Cat officials say the non-income producing millions they would spend on the riverfront have nothing to do with firings, layoffs, and local PRODUCTIVE spending. Then have empathy for all of their local suppliers who produce a product. Those businesses have been severely affected. How must some of them feel about Cat having money to donate $55 million to a project in so must demand that the promoters are spending $640,000.00 to try to sell it to the voter?

Meanwhile local candidates continue to tell us that we ought to vote to double the Peoria County government’s sales tax rate, bdecause it will strengthen Caterpillar’s ties to the Peoria area. It’s code for pay more taxes or Caterpillar might leave people. Sorry folks, that ISN’T going to happen.

Caterpillar says its visitor center scheme will die if voters don’t approve the museum tax:

One questioner thought Caterpillar’s “this plan, or no plan” sounded like a threat.

Mark Johnson, the project manager for Caterpillar, responded.

“We’ve operated for 85 years (in Peoria) without such a facility. It’s not critical to us and it’s not going to return a single penny to a single stockholder,” he said. “It would be nice to have,” Johnson said, adding that it is now up to voters to decide whether the project has value.

First, there’s not one single molecule in my body that gives a flying rat’s butt if Caterpillar build’s this or not. And apparently they don’t either. If they can get the taxpayers to cough up money to build attractions next door, they are all for it. But otherwise, no big deal. Right?

Feh. I don’t buy it for a second. This is the pre-vote soft-sell. The strategy is to NOT turn off voters with threats (the usual tactic is to imply Caterpillar will pull up stakes and leave people). But I have no doubt these people will just keep coming back with one scheme after another.

I suggest the City of Peoria stop fooling around and put a  “for sale” sign” damn lot, and sell it to anyone who will build on it and pay property taxes.

No requests for proposals. No TIF agreements. Just a big “for sale” sign.

And if Cat wants to make a bid, let ‘em. But no more special deals for the Great Yellow God.

Barack Obama learned an important lesson during his visit to East Peoria yesterday.

Don’t trust a word that comes out of Jim Owens’ mouth.

And by Jim Owens, I mean: “Anyone who speaks on behalf of Caterpillar.”

Frankly, I’m a bit shocked that Obama, as a former state senator and U.S. Senator from the Land of Lincoln, had not already learned this lesson.

This is what happened in the media Wednesday after Owens spoke to the President of the United States:

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar has informed him it will rehire some of the thousands of workers it has laid off in recent weeks if Congress passes an economic stimulus bill.

This is what the Peoria Journal Star reported in today’s edition:

Layoffs at Caterpillar Inc. may not be over despite the recent statement by Chairman and CEO Jim Owens that the company might recall employees with the passage of a stimulus package.

“We’ll probably have more layoffs before we start hiring again,” said Owens at an impromptu news conference after President Barack Obama’s appearance Thursday at Caterpillar’s Building HH.

So, either Owens is lying, Obama is lying or Obama got it wrong.

I may not be a fan of Obama’s policies, but he is neither stupid nor is he a bald-faced liar (the former having a lot to do with the latter).

Owens, however, works for Caterpillar. That pretty much all you need to know in regards to credibility.

If you pay attention in this town for five minutes, you realize that everyone lets Caterpillar get away with all sorts of outrages to accuracy that otherwise would be called out in the media. The one going around now is that Caterpillar will move its world headquarters if Peoria county voters decide to increase sales taxes to help fund development of the former Sears Block. It’s complete B.S., but that’s what the Build a Block crowd is whispering in everyones ear these days. Some suckers believe it.

I was at work Wednesday when news of Owens “promise” to Obama hit the Web. I mentioned it to about a half dozen of my co-workers. Not one of them believed it. ‘How many people is he talking about,’ one asked. ‘Seven?’

It’s one thing to lie to local politicians, few of whom have the courage to call them on it, and quite another to lie to the President of the United States.

Owens and his predecessors can get away with it here, but he embarassed the President of the United States. I’m hoping that that lie doesn’t come back to somehow haunt the people who still work for Caterpillar.

As predicted, the Peoria County Board voted almost unanimously to put a referendum on the ballot for a .25 percent sales tax to fund construction the downtown museum fiasco.

Only Merle Widmer had the foresight and/or testicular fortitude to vote against the referendum, which Caterpillar wants to see happen because they want the museum to accompany their own shiny new toy, a visitor center that would be located next door to the museum. After all, John Deere has one, and by God, they want Peorians to help foot the bill for theirs.

Now that voters will see this boondoggle on the April 7 ballot, expect to see a campaign of lies and deceptions designed to both over promise the benefits and scare voters by convincing them Caterpillar will leave.

Among the lies:

• Grossly over estimating the number of visitors this whole project will attract, this overstating the incoming revenue AND the positive impact on the the local economy.
• Claiming that Caterpillar will move its World Headquarters if the museum doesn’t get built.
• Claiming the the sales tax cannot possibly become permanent (when revenue doesn’t meet the overinflated expectations, they WILL extant the tax to operate the facility and/or finance additional expansions, just like they did with the Peoria Civic Center).
• Impugning the character of those who publicly oppose public financing.

And the lies have already begun! As C.J. Summers points out, the Peoria County Website claims the government isn’t officially advocating passage of the referendum. But they go and sponsor forums organized and featuring presentations by those who really, really want to see this tax burden placed on voters.

The Peoria County Board is going to vote tonight on whether or not to give voters the opportunity to approve a sales tax increase to suppost the construction of a museum on the site of the former Sears store. I was considering attending this meeting instead of the regular Peoria City Council meeting.

But why bother? I doubt there are more than three politicians in Peoria with the testicular fortitude to say “no” to Caterpillar, let alone a majority of the PCC.

So, I’ll attend the council meeting, since that’s my beat. I’ll let Merle Widmer provide a blow-by-blow account of tonight’s travesty.

And if anyone out there doubts me, look at this:

Yeah. They are so confident it’s gonna get on the ballot, they are scheduling meetings to encourage people to pass the damn referendum.

And for the record: I’m not opposed to construction workers getting work. That people will put money into their pockets is the least objectionable part of this. But if there’s money to build that is certain to be a white elephant failure, there’s money out there to build and repair new roads, sidewalks and bridges.

Tom Mangan speculates a bit about the big announcement:

My hunch is a lot of people think Cat will get spanked hard tomorrow — which could be bullish if you’re a daring contrarian who can get in and out fast enough. There’s often a lot money to be made zigging when the herd zags. But there’s always the potential for getting trampled. This long look at what’s coming up this week across the market shows we’re rolling into the busiest week of the earnings season.

You see, this is why I would never be a day trader. I’ve guessing that a fiscally conservative company like Caterpillar will survive this recession/depression/whatever.  They don’t operate like they are overly concerned with tomorrow’s stock price, but the stock price a decade or more down he road.

Which is more than I can say about other companies that are laying off a bunch of people.