The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Where would Peoria be without Caterpillar? The world’s largest maker of mining and construction equipment has made its home in the Illinois city of 115,800 since 1967. About 15,400 people in Peoria and surrounding towns draw a paycheck from CAT, making the company the largest employer in the area. Its presence is visible everywhere, from its headquarters at 100 NE Adams Street to the playground outfitted with a miniature tractor and skid-steer loader at the Shoppes at Grand Prairie mall. Caterpillar has put “Peoria on the map as a global center for business,” says Andrew Greenlee, assistant professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

That long and fruitful relationship was in jeopardy a few years ago when Illinois enacted a temporary hike in the corporate income tax, raising it from 4.8 percent to 7 percent. (The rate has since rolled back to 5.25 percent.) In a March 2011 letter to then-Governor Pat Quinn, Caterpillar’s chairman and chief executive officer, Doug Oberhelman, wrote, “I never really considered living anywhere else, and certainly never considered the possibility of Caterpillar relocating. But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day.” The missive, a copy of which was obtained by the Lee Enterprises chain of newspapers, went on to say that at least four states were wooing the company. “I have been called, ‘cornered’ in meetings, and ‘wined and dined’—the heat is on,” wrote Caterpillar’s boss.