Wisconsin offered US$70m to keep Mercury in Fond du Lac
By IBI Magazine
Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin revealed on Friday that the state had offered Mercury Marine an incentives package worth up to US$70m to remain in Wisconsin. The company made the decision in September to stay in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, rather than move its manufacturing to its MerCruiser facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, after the union ratified a new contract. "Mercury Marine is an iconic Wisconsin company that has provided jobs and investment for this area for more than 70 years," Doyle said at the Fond du lac plant Friday. "Retaining the company and its nearly 2,000 jobs in these difficult times took hard work and cooperation. I want to recognize the city and county of Fond du Lac and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers for helping us further our partnership with the company." Mercury employs about 1,900 in Fond du Lac. They are split between hourly production workers in its manufacturing facility and salaried personnel at its world headquarters. The US$70m state incentive package includes tax credits, grants and forgivable loans. The incentives are based on Mercury creating and retaining 2,700 jobs and remaining in Fond du Lac for 12 years. Some of those new jobs will be jobs moved from the Oklahoma plant. "The program with the state of Wisconsin is performance-based, which means that figure could be higher or lower depending on the number of jobs created and retained by Mercury," said Steve Fleming, Mercury spokesman in an email. "It's driven by our success, which of course is driven by the economy as well as our ability to compete within the industry. That's why it's so important that we emerge from the economic downturn as a stronger, smaller and more competitive company." The city of Fond du Lac also created a US$3m incentives package and Fond du Lac county also came up with a US$50m package to keep the company in Fond du Lac.
(9 November 2009)
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