Peoria Standard

Caterpillar recently announced that it is moving its headquarters from Chicago to Irvin, Texas. 

The Fortune 500 company has been associated with the Land of Lincoln for almost a century. Company officials decided to move the headquarters and approximately 250 employees to Texas, according to an opinion piece by Crain's Chicago Business. This is the second time Caterpillar has moved its headquarters in five years. 

"Illinois businesses and communities associated with CAT are now feeling the same heartbreak and uneasiness that Peorians felt five years ago when CAT announced their HQ move from downtown Peoria," Desi Anderson (R), candidate for Illinois State Senate District 46, told Peoria Standard. "Caterpillar, in many ways, is the heart of the Peoria economy and it is hard to imagine a thriving city or even a surviving city if Caterpillar were to accelerate their move from Illinois and Peoria manufacturing."

Although thousands of Caterpillar jobs will remain in Illinois, there is a fear that in the future, those functional-level jobs will follow in the footsteps of the company's headquarters and relocate to other states, Crain's Chicago Business said.

"The fact is, Illinois is not business-friendly; Illinois Democratic politicians have been waging war on small and large business for decades with their economic policy, and it is culminating in the biggest and best companies in the world saying goodbye," Anderson said. "These companies need assurance that the local infrastructure can support their ability to grow and recruit talent. There are consequences to having some of the highest taxes and crime rates in the country. Families and workers in Peoria have been making the same decision to leave for years, which perpetuates a vicious cycle of even higher taxes, crime rates, and crumbling infrastructure, as there are fewer citizens to pay the bills required to have a safe and thriving city. We can and must reverse this course and make the city of Peoria the magnet for business that it once was."

Caterpillar is the second Fortune 500 company ranked in the top 75 to move its headquarters out of Illinois to a different state in the last year. Boeing announced its decision to leave last October after being headquartered in Illinois for 21 years, according to Reuters.