J.B. Pritzker Loses Another Illinois Company: Caterpillar Moves to Texas

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzer (D) is trying to put a brave face on the departure of another major Illinois company to a Republican-run state, as construction vehicle company Caterpillar announced Tuesday it is moving its corporate headquarters to Texas.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

The 97-year-old company was based in Peoria, Ill., for decades before shifting its headquarters in 2018 to Deerfield, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Caterpillar said it would begin moving its headquarters to Texas this year.

The move is expected to affect the roughly 230 corporate employees at the company’s headquarters, Caterpillar said, a fraction of its total workforce of nearly 108,000. It is a setback for Chicago and Illinois leaders’ efforts to bring more companies to the city and surrounding area, which has drawn the headquarters of Conagra Brands Inc., Archer Daniels MidlandCo. and other companies in recent years.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has touted his state’s low taxes and looser approach to business regulation, and Texas lawmakers have offered financial measures to lure employers from the coasts. Illinois has an individual income tax of 4.95%, while Texas doesn’t have a state income tax.

In a statement, Pritzker protested the move, citing what he claimed were positive economic statistics about Illinois, such as that its “GDP growth is outpacing its pre-pandemic rate.”

React from @GovPritzker pic.twitter.com/R66WIglDMj

— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) June 14, 2022

Pritzker also noted that the company would retain manufacturing plants in the state.

Last month, Boeing announced that it was moving its headquarters from Chicago, Illinois, to Arlington, Virginia.

Pew reported in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic: “People are leaving Illinois in droves.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.