FeedCaterpillar’s ‘gimme’ mentality is killing Peoria
March 27, 2006 in Statehouse & Capitol
An interesting nugget of information in today’s Word on the Street column:
At-large City Councilman Gary Sandberg has a nice little spreadsheet in which he tracks everything from city, county and Tri-County population to the city’s capital, operating and debt service budgets, with more specific breakdowns on the fire, police and public works budgets.
He did this from 1970 through the 2006 budget, and he continues to add to it as he gets updated information.
In 1977, he notes, the city’s debt load was $500,000. Today, in 2006, it’s $18.5 million a year. That’s money that goes to things like paying off the bonds on the Civic Center and various parking garages and the Gateway Building.
I’ve asked this before and I’ll ask it again: If using my tax dollars to build civic center, a ball park and a RecPlex, as well as grocery stores and shopping centers for millionaires, was good for Peoria, why do we have so much debt, more crime and fewer people living in the city?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Yet, there isn’t a doubt in my mind this newer and supposedly more fiscally responsible version of the Peoria City Council will allow taxpayer money to be used to build the luxury hotel Caterpillar, as well as cough up more money for Caterpillar to have the butt-ugly glass-and-metal visitors center they want.
Why? Because no one in this city has the testicular fortitude to say no to Caterpillar.
March 27th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
FYI…
Adjusted for cost-of-living increases, that $500,000 debt would equal less than a tenth of our current debt load today. The adjusted figure would be $1,744,288.22.
But I still don’t agree with you about Cat…they drop a hell of a lot more into this economy than they could ever possibly take out.
March 27th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Caterpiullar “drops” nothing into the economy. They pay their workers for the work they perform, and these workers puy groceries, drive cars and pay for their housing. THAT is what drives the economy. Caterpillar pays not one dime more in taxes that it is forced to pay, the company has resources that you and I do not have to make sure their tax bill is as low as possible.
It drives me crazy when I encounter this attitude that Cat is being generous by simply existing. Believe me, the big stockholders and the board of directors benefit far more from Cat’s existance that do we mere mortals.
March 27th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
There’s a lot more to making a contribution to a community than paying high taxes. And there’s obviously a hell of a lot you don’t know about Cat’s generosity to the community. Ask just about any board or charity in this town (you know, the people who do the real work of caring…not the governement). They’ve all been blessed through the years by Cat’s corporate giving. Big time. As have the arts, local sports, infrastructure issues, city security (as mentioned in today’s PJS), and a million other facets of our community.
And…of course Cat’s $$$ flows through the salaries of its workers. Now, follow that argument through to its obvious conclusion: where would all of that money come from if Cat were to move away?
The simple answer is no where. Peoria would blow away like dust.
No Cat = No Peoria.
March 27th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
I think the problem has less to do with Cat and more to do with developers. The problems Peoria has, are not unique to Peoria. Developers have much more say in this regard than Cat. Cat certainly is a player but I think developers and their always build new things attitude is more destructive. the values we have as consumers also plays a role. We live in a society where everything is regarded as disposable, including our houses. People would rather dispose of an old house than fix it up. Same with old cars. There is no shortage of people who would say that the ‘disposable’ economy is a good thing.
March 28th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Mahkno, Don’t blame the developers… They are only taking what’s given to them. You can’t blame them for leveraging silly public policy for their own benifit. It is the American way. Talk to your council rep if you feel they are robbing the pigggy bank. All the bennies that are dished out fall on their shoulders.
March 28th, 2006 at 8:12 am
I for one blame the greadheads for being greedy. Must we have bulletproof public policy to prevent people from doing what we think comes natural, snatching every free dime they can off the plate leaving nothing, that is the American way? B***sh*t drag them into the streets and tar and feather them, then tell them that is the American way. Developers developing when there is no need to develope has hurt this city and others, lets build a big building full of office space and tell the city it will be a Technology Center so as to get some free dimes, tech stocks are hot they won’t want to miss out on this one….. more vacant office space downtown and no new businesses, certainly no tech based companies moved to town. Lets take a big pile of dimes and build an “incubator” in our shiny new buzzword district wait the buzzword changed, no worries just change the name of the big square building thingy to something trendy and plow ahead… more dimes on the horizon… Yahooo and on and on and on and on ……….