In a deal made four years ago, Columbus officials granted oil-refinery-equipment supplier MSC Industrial Direct “lucrative incentives” as part of that company’s “aggressive plan to create 300 new jobs and add $55.5 million in new manufacturing space and equipment,” The Columbus Dispatch reports. Decreased oil prices and a downturn in production recently led MSC to propose an amendment to that agreement, lowering the number of new jobs it plans to create to 198. Even with the lower number, Columbus development director Steve Schoeny said the “income-tax rebate offered to MSC is a win-win” because the incentives “are entirely performance-based . . . you get back what you put in,” according to the article. If the company doesn’t meet the original goal for new jobs, “it still only gets a percentage of the income tax revenue for those jobs created.” City development officials have said such incentives are “necessary to spur development in areas in which investors otherwise might not be interested.”
Performance-based tax incentives a win for Columbus, says development director
