This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Governor's Office of Economic Development board on Thursday agreed to upgrade a tax incentive it approved for ATK Aerospace Structures three years ago, and OK'd an incentive for a Texas-based health care management company.
In 2010, ATK announced plans to create 802 new high-paying jobs over two decades at a new 600,000-square-foot factory in Clearfield that would make composite airframes and aircraft engine casings for companies like Airbus and Rolls-Royce. At the time, GOED's board approved a $19 million tax incentive to build the new manufacturing facility.
On Thursday, the board voted unanimously to approve a restructuring of the original post-performance tax credit. The earlier incentive was replaced with a $21.3 million credit that ATK can draw on as it creates an additional 200 jobs at the facility over the next 20 years, for a total of 1,002 jobs.
The company has agreed to pay employees 165-185 percent of the average Davis County wage. The average weekly wage in the county is $763, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Over the life of the incentive, ATK expects to pay $99.2 million in wages to the employees. It will pay $63.6 million in new taxes to the state.
"We call [the facility] ACCE, the Aircraft Commercial Center of Excellence," ATK spokesman George Torres said. "What we do there is manufacture high-tech composite structures for commercial airplanes. When I say structures, I mean big structures."
The internal frames for the fuselage of the new Airbus A350 jet, for example, can be 60 feet in length. Casings for the Rolls-Royce engines are 12 feet in diameter, Torres said.
GOED's board also consented to a $1.8 million incentive for Cardon Outreach, an Irvine, Texas-based company that agreed to expand to Utah and create 308 new jobs in the state.
Over the 15-year life of the agreement with the state of Utah, Cardon will pay $215 million in new wages. The company is looking at locations in Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. All of the jobs will pay at least 125 percent of the selected county's average wage.
During the same period, Cardon will pay approximately $9.2 million in new state taxes and will invest $5.3 million in its expansion.
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