Carrier deal touted by Trump unusual for Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS — The deal brokered by President Donald Trump to stem job losses at a Carrier Corp. factory in Indianapolis is unusual for the state of Indiana as it offers $7 million of incentives to a company still planning to cut about a third of its some 1,600 jobs.
A state economic development board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on endorsing the package nearly four months after Trump celebrated his role in the negotiations with a visit to the plant, which makes furnaces.
Most of the scant details that Indiana officials have released came on a one-page handout distributed by then-Gov. Mike Pence’s staff when he and Trump travelled to the Carrier factory on Dec. 1. Trump, who during the presidential campaign had often criticized Carrier’s plans to shutter the factory and shift production to Mexico, declared that the company’s reversal would be the first of many such decisions with him as president.
Many states offer tax breaks and training grants for companies to retain jobs, but that hasn’t been the case in Indiana over the last 12 years, when Republicans have held the governor’s office. During that time, the state has typically demanded companies receiving such economic development deals promise to create new jobs.