Illinois Republican Party

Caterpillar CEO Blasts Illinois Business Climate
2/13/2012

Excerpts from Huffington Post:

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn once again found himself on the defense this weekend after another Illinois CEO slammed the state's business climate.

Last week, Peoria-based Caterpillar, Inc. -- which employs 23,000 people in the state -- announced that it would build a new plant in North Carolina rather than Illinois, the Bloomington Pantagraph reports. The facility is being built to handle work being relocated from Japan, and 1,400 jobs are expected to be created.

Quinn told reporters Sunday that he had met with Caterpillar executives, and that the plant location was about geography, not politics.

"We don't have any ocean front property in Illinois, so with that particular facility we weren't in the ball game to begin with," Quinn said Sunday, according to the Associated Press. "We met with the Caterpillar people and they made it pretty clear that the logistics would drive the decision."

But a letter from Caterpillar to Illinois communities struck a different tone. Cities and towns that had hoped to have the plant built in their communities received a rejection letter of sorts from the company, which partially blamed state government for the decision.

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