Philip Morris will return incentives
Friday, June 29th, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK AND SHARIF DURHAMS
Philip Morris USA said Thursday it will refund $750,000 in state job-creation money the company collected only weeks before announcing that its Concord plant would close and 2,500 jobs would be lost.
The cigarette giant also said it will refund a local tax incentive already paid by Concord and would research whether it will still collect future incentive money. The state and local money was promised in exchange for a $138 million investment at the massive cigarette factory over the past three years.
The company decided to return the money because keeping it would have broken the spirit of the original incentive agreements from 2004, which was to keep jobs and investment in Cabarrus County, said spokesman Brendan McCormick.
"I figured they probably would be embarrassed by it and they probably would return it," said state Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat who became incensed Wednesday when he heard about the May 25 payment of state grant money.
The Observer this week reported the news of the payment from Gov. Mike Easley’s One North Carolina Fund, an economic development pot intended to create and keep jobs in the state. The N.C. Commerce Department said it was investigating whether the company would have to return the money. (more…)
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