72-year-old East Moline woman arrested for 2008 seat belt ticket

**Maytag**

Galesburg has really been clobbered (and the surrounding villages that was home to many of the workers). Gone along with Maytag, is Gale Products (Lawnboy, OMC), and Butler Manufacturing. Gates Rubber employs a fraction of it’s former number. ADM closed it’s soybean proccessing plant, using it only as a soybean shipping and receiving location.

As the workers that managed to retire before the closures and chose to stay in the area, die off, further economic decline is guaranteed. The porcelain plant nine miles south in Abingdon was a union plant, too. Their downtown is practically nonexistant now.

I’m convinced the agricultural equipment boom is about to take a dive. The sales of new equipment has been amazing, thanks mostly to the ethanol mandate. But, the EPA’s proposed ethanol production cut will hit the farmers in their pockets. A big corn and soybean crop in South America would be bad for N.A. farmers as well. The potential for another midwest depression is very real.

Wife's cousins farm about 1,000 acres in SW Iowa. They just purchased a half million dollars worth of equipment and neighbors are retiring, so they'll likely lease additional land that fits their machinery.

If they didn't continually reinvest in new iron, they'd piss it away to the government so might as well have a class ride in the field.

Yeah, it’s catch 22. Don’t show too much profit by buying newer equipment, or keep the debt load low and give the profits to the guvmint. If they have little or no debt, good for them. They are a minority in the cornbelt. I was queezed out by the big farmers when my landlord died in the 90’s, but still live on a small acreage, and know what farming in the midwest is all about.

My neighborhood is full of new or late model machinery. A few still farm with older stuff, putting their profits in land and/or retirement accounts.

The tax code should reward profitability vs. higher penalties.

This is simple solution would cause our business, sales and employment to skyrocket.

Think how you are rewarded in your job. The government's “reward” is punishment.

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