Article from "The Street," an internet publication.
A jobs announcement that
- Melissa Bean,
- Bill Foster,
- Pat Quinn and
- Alexi Giannoulias
won’t highlight.
500 good paying new jobs.
Caterpillar makes excavators in Aurora.
In a liberal Democrat’s Congressional district.
So where in Illinois did Caterpillar, headquartered in Peoria, decide to build a new plant to build more excavators?
Nowhere in Illinois.
They decided on Victoria, Texas.
How much money was given to Caterpillar to incentivize them to locate those jobs in Victoria?
$300 million?
$200 million?
$100 million?
None of the above.
It was a $1.18 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund. Yes, for a measly 1million dollars, 500 good paying new jobs went to Texas.
Democrats from Foster, Bean, Giannoulias to Quinn can chalk this up to as a failure to get 500 new good paying jobs to anywhere around here and anywhere in Illinois.
Illinois Democrats seem to take voters for granted where they don’t have to work to bring good jobs to Illinois.
With new capacity in Texas, once the facility is up and running, you can bet over time, jobs will be shifted more to Texas and less in Aurora.
The prior week Caterpillar announced a plant expansion in North Carolina and 325 new jobs to build skid loaders.
Expanding in North Carolina, but not Illinois.
Not in a liberal Democrat Bill Foster’s district. By voting for Obamacare, he cost Caterpillar a huge earnings hit.
Illinois Democrats like Foster, Bean, Giannoulias and Quinn all favor and support aggressive tax raising policies and aggressive unionism. Something Caterpillar is obviously saying they don’t need more of.
Foster wouldn’t help Cat and voted for changes in tax law that punished Caterpillar and pushed huge costs onto Cat. You can bet Cat couldn’t care what Foster had to say if he even bothered to be involved with this new jobs decision.
Groundbreaking for the 600,000 sq. ft. plant will be in September according to Texas Governor Perry’s press release.
Texas Governor Perry is a Republican. So Illinois Democrats lost 500 new good paying jobs to a Republican politician for a measly $1 million.
It appears Democrats in Illinois don’t have a job creation strategy.
Maybe that’s why the Illinois Chamber of Commerce endorsed Republican Bill Brady for governor.
Losing these new jobs is an enormous failure of first-term Democratic Party Congressman Bill Foster, as Aurora is in his district.
It shows how out of touch he is with a huge employer in his area.
It may become the largest local issue in the Congressional campaign.
One that Randy Hultgren can point to as an obvious new jobs failure when campaigning against liberal Democrat Foster.
It’s pretty easy for people to conclude Foster is inept at this jobs and economy stuff.
How could a Republican do worse?
Losing 500 new jobs that could have been in Illinois, McHenry County or in Aurora to Texas is Rod Blagojevich-like incompetence as a politician.
Perhaps Republicans can rally working Democrat voters to select the Republicans.
I wonder how people like myself can raise enough money to run against them and get them voted out of office?
We need help in doing things like this.
What line of College does political fund-raising fall under?
This maybe the occupation I should go for.
I probably won’t get elected this year due to my opponents having unlimited funds.
So maybe I should look to the future.
Access to an ocean port was mentioned in newspapers as one of the reasons for CAT’s choice of Texas; along with seek non-union labor. Illinois may hve really been in the running, who know.
Cal…the Democrats logo is a “jackass”, sure characterizes the liberals.
Hmmm. “It’s a major shift in manufacturing strategy for Caterpillar,” said John Stark, a Chicago-based forecaster for the construction-machinery industry. “It’s all driven by cost reductions. It’s not just labor costs; it’s the cost of shipping; it’s the cost of exporting and attempting to shorten the distance between the supplier base and production facilities.”
So Cal, what do you think these clueless Democrats should have done? Build an ocean? Move the state? Are you uninformed or are you being purposefully deceitful?
There is nothing deceitful or uninformed about the local media’s giving Dems a pass on losing these 500 new jobs.
Read the headline of the article again.
With a president from Illinois, why is Illinois unemployment much higher than the national average?
Could it be because Illinois Dems are ineffective at attracting private sector jobs?
The forecaster you quoted was kind or incomplete enough to fail to mention the tax burden–current and future–on Illinois business.
Do you consider yourself “The Media” Cal? You wrote a piece blaming (and I quote) “Democrats from Foster, Bean, Giannoulias to Quinn ” for this when in fact everyone- the mayor of the town the plant is going, the head of Caterpillar- says it’s the towns location and access to overseas shipping that cause the plant (and those 500 jobs) to locate there. To write a story that says that Foster, Bean, Giannoulias & Quinn could have somehow affected this choice is the height of deceit. But why am I surprised- you already have another Bean smear up- obviously you’ve got some grudge against her.
But hey, educate me: WHAT COULD THOSE FOUR DEMOCRATS HAVE DONE to have caused Caterpillar to chose Illinois instead of Texas?
The better question is if they did anything to keep an Illinois company from investing outside the state.
Find any evidence of their having done anything?
Lets see Cal. How about the Motorola plant. Who set up that deal? Looks like some Republicans can’t resist bad deals. Lets see what about the Metra Station in Crystal Lake and the Sports Complex and Wonder Lake dredging that no one can afford but the privilage have pushed on the County. Lets see Federal stimulas money used to back private projects so individuals can get kick backs. Like Wonder Lake dredging and the Lakewood Sports Complex. But they let companies dump illegal contaminates in our ground water and not have to pay fines and penalties. And You say its the Democrats. I think Not. Sorry Cal but Republican Control has done that to this county. The Federal Government passed NAFTA that means all including the Republicans and Independants and Libertarians. Thats what is killing this country and that means Bush and Bush have let it go on for how long???? This isn’t a Obama problem its a America problem.
We see there is 24 members on our County board only 3 are Democrats and they have only been on the board for the last couple of years.
What do you think they have done. Since they are out numbered 7 to 1. I haven’t heard of any ways to bring business to McHenry County except if they pay they can setup residence here. What does that sound like to you?
What jobs have they brought to our County. None, sounds familier.
They are just interested in Union busting what has happened with the Animal Control employees? Claiming they don’t have money is their way of saying if you don’t donate than you can’t have a raise. They just gave the other people at the county pay raises. What happen with that?
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING MID-YEAR SALARY ADJUSTMENTS TO THE SALARIES OF SEVERAL POSITIONS IN THE STATE’S ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
WHEREAS, the State’s Attorney has several employees in his office who were promoted to positions of increased duties and responsibilities without any increase in pay to commensurate with their abilities and commitment to the County of McHenry and the Office of State’s Attorney; and
WHEREAS, the positions within the State’s Attorney’s Office to which the employees have been assigned have historically been evaluated at higher grades with increased pay; and
WHEREAS, an increase in the salary, for these employees is necessary due to the increase in the demands and responsibilities in these positions and the State’s Attorney’s Office Budget currently does have the necessary funds to cover the increase with the exception of position 5 herein below; but is below the midpoint for said positions; and
WHEREAS, the percentage increase and the cost of said salary increases with the additional cost of benefits (Social Security and IMRF) is as follows: POSITION TITLE PERCENTAGE INCREASE AMOUNT OF SALARY INCREASE ADDITIONAL COST OF BENEFITS IMRF & SOCIAL SECURITY
1) 450030 045 001199
Chief of Criminal
22 %
$17,955.36
$3,192.47
2) 450030 045 000605
Special Prosecutor
9.5 %
$7,783.58
$1,383.92
3) 450030 045 002399
1st Chair Felony
8.9 %
$6,559.88
$1,166.35
4) 450030 045 005599
Drug Court
10 %
$5,469.96
$972.56
5) 450030 045 003806
2nd Chair Felony
10 %
$6,000.00
$1,066.80
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by this County Board of McHenry County, Illinois, that the Human Resources Director is authorized to process the salary increases for said positions in the State’s Attorney’s Office as set forth hereinabove; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Resolution shall be in full force and effect immediately upon its adoption and the County Clerk shall distribute a certified copy of this Resolution to the State’s Attorney, Human Resources Director, Associate County Administrator – Finance, and County Administrator.
DATED at Woodstock, Illinois, this 16th day of March, A.D., 2010. _______________________ Kenneth D. Koehler, Chairman McHenry County Board ATTEST: _________________ Katherine C. Schultz, County Clerk County of McHenry, Illinois