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Oracle is bringing 351 high-paying jobs to Utah.

Now the hardware and software engineering company has to decide whether to develop its new customer software-support center in Salt Lake City or in the high-tech corridor sprouting between Draper and Lehi.

Either site is good for the state, members of the Governor's Office of Economic Development board concurred Thursday, approving a $2.8 million incentive package to entice the California company to pick Utah over Texas.

The post-performance incentive is worth about 25 percent of the new taxes Oracle is expected to generate in the incentive's 10-year life span.

In exchange, board member Jerry Oldroyd noted that Oracle intends to create the 351 new jobs, which pay 125 percent of Salt Lake County's average wage. Over a decade, that adds up to $239 million in new state wages and $11.3 million in new tax revenues.

Oracle also could make a capital investment of up to $6.1 million in the facility.

"We have been impressed by the high-tech growth in Utah, and we're pleased to be expanding our presence here," said Randy Smith, Oracle's vice president of real estate and facilities.

"The state offers a unique blend of potential economic growth as well as a highly skilled workforce," he added, noting that Oracle already has a data center in West Jordan. "The opportunities in Utah are very clear. It's the right place for us to grow."

Utah wasn't even in the running for the software-support center before GOED board member Margaret Lasecke-Jacobs got involved.

An Oracle executive until 2000, she encouraged her former colleagues to give the Beehive State a look. They did, liked what they saw and changed their plans, said Theresa Foxley, GOED's new managing director of corporate recruitment and business services.

"This will be a brand-new model for Oracle," Lasecke-Jacobs said. "Utah will become a vital part of Oracle's story."

Outgoing GOED Executive Director Spencer P. Eccles said Oracle's decision is another sign of Utah's emergence as a "tech hot spot." That reputation is based on the state having an educated workforce, lower operating costs, a high quality of life and a growing concentration of technology companies.

Oracle's presence just adds to that concentration and "enhances our ability to grow the information-technology industry and continue to attract first-rate technology jobs to Utah," said Jeff Edwards, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Utah.

Including Oracle's projected hires, GOED incentives for the year ending June 30 have helped seal deals that created 6,883 jobs in the state this year, Foxley said. The goal was 5,838.

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