Peoria Pundit

Two breaking news items of interest to those who want to be able to buy food and shelter for themselves and their families: ‘Mitsubishi announces 7-week non-production shutdown‘and ‘Cat contract workers facing cuts.’

One of the agencies that’s losing all that work with Caterpillar is ATS. Some of the People I worked with at SVI Media (before it moved all it’s jobs to the Philippines) ended up going to ATS. I was happy for them when I found out, because working for a Cat contractor is considered the next best thing to working for Cat. Not so much as it turns out.

I’m not enough of an economist (I’m not one at ALL, actually) to comment on whether Cat really has to do this, or if the company is just panicking like everyone else is.

But the loss of all these paychecks in Central Illinois cannot help but to put a crimp on other local businesses, leading to more lost jobs, which in turn causes more lost jobs. Eventually, someone will figure otu that now is the time to invest, money will start to flow, people will get hired, money will be spent in stores all will be right with the world.

Until then, I’m gonna hoard sugar and flour and bury my money in a mason jar in the backyard.

 

Ex-pat Peorian Chase Ingersoll seems some dis-similarities between Peoria and his new home, Ann Arbor, Mich.:

Cities are like adolescents in the locker room. They are always comparing “theirs” to the biggest. Perhaps because of its proximity to Detroit, Ann Arbor understands that just because you are older and “bigger” doesn’t mean that you are better. Maybe the better city is one without a former mayor doing time (Detroit), or a record number of gang shootings over the last 12 months (Chicago).

Peoria, Illinois on the other hand is always looking down at itself and then looking over at Chicago. It says a lot about envious elite fish in a Peoria sized pond. What they value is not being looked down on as small fish by the fish in the Chicago, Springfield or Naperville ponds, even while they themselves look down on Pekin, Morton and Chillicothe fish as “small ponders”. And their answer to their inferiority impulses always seems to be, “…what sort of larger, grander phallic symbol can we build…so as to qualify Peoria as a larger pond…” , without regard to the many residents whom they must Shanghai to their tax payer chain gang.

Agreed. I am convinced that insecurity about our place in the universe is driving a lot of these make-work economic development projects that Peoria’s movers and shakers with which Peoria’s mover’s and shakers are so infatuated. Were these boosters a little bit less insecure in their masculinity, we would have spent the last 20 years letting free market forces drive our economy. Can you imagine the real economic development that would have happened if we had lower property, sales and utility taxes during the past two decades? Well, I’m a libertarian, so I can.

And there’s a certain amount of competitive measurement going on at the local corporate level, too. I imagine Caterpillar feels a bit of penis envy over the fact that John Deere has a shiny visitor’s center and they do not. And since politicians shrivel at the thought of Caterpillar not being happy, we’re going to get a Caterpillar visitor center right next to a museum no one really wants to pay for voluntarily.

Now that Gov. Rod Blagojevich has given his permission, the Peoria County Board is going to have to decide whether to let taxpayers decide whether to tax restaurants to raise money to build the downtown museum.

My two cents: This was supposed to be built with private donations. But the people who have the money to toss at this project have voted no, but not donating enough of their money.

So, they are trying to do what all democracies do: Let the majority of voters decide whether everyone ought to pay for this thing, whether they want to or not.

If successful, it will work like the City of Peoria’s Hotel, Restaurant and Amusement Tax works. Every time someone goes into a restaurant to buy a Happy Meal or something off the Dollar Menu, some portion of what they pay is going to go toward paying for this project.

And here’s the funny thing about the HRA tax. It was sold to taxpayers as a way to BUILD the Peoria Civic Center. Those original bonds have long been paid off. The tax is still there, of course, being used to pay for countless renovations as well as propping up other economic development schemes. It will never go away, because the PCC will never be self sufficient. It will always require taxpayer support, giving lie to the assertions is helps build Peoria’s economy.

So in addition to having a situation in which little old ladies, single mothers and homeless people pay to support events at the Peoria Civic Center they cannot afford to attend, they also will have to pay for a a museum project that’s being driven by Caterpillar’s desire for a museum to accompany it’s own attached welcoming center.

But there’s no doubt that the County Board will put this on the referendum, because I doubt the there’s a majority of the board with the testicular fortitude to say “no” to Caterpillar. And no doubt Caterpillar surrogates will spend the following months predicting that Caterpillar will pull up stakes and move elsewhere is the vote fails.

That’s the way things work in Peoria.

Feh.

I was going to write about today’s Word on the Street, but was busy this morning (see previous post). So I’ll just let C.J.’s fine post speak for me. I am as sick as anyone else with politicians using the threat of Caterpillar packing up and leaving whenever they want to scare up suypport for whatever project they are trying to shove down out throats.

C.J. wants Big Yellow to level with Peorians about their plans. Will Cat leave if voters don’t approve a tax to help pay for the riverfront museum project? The museum would be located next to the visitor’s center Cat wants to build.

Don’t hold you breath wating for an answer. Caterpillar is notorious for pushing its weight around behind the scenes. There are those who think Caterpillar sabotages efforts to get other heavy industries to locate here. This is because Cat doesn’t want to compete for skilled workers. And if are other major employers that offer really good wages, then Cat’s clout is lessened.

I was going to write about how backers of a downtown museum are trying to scare people into supporting it.

But C.J. Summers beat me to it, and got is just right.