Sunday, July 20, 2008
On this day:

How much was Alabama prepared to give away to VW?

Lots. In addition to providing tax breaks and building roads, we were going to buy their land, build their buildings, and train their workers. According to Alabama Development Office director Neal Wade:
The state and Limestone County and the City of Huntsville and the surrounding counties had a package of incentives. We had a cash grant to help fund the cost of land and site prep. That was $205 million.

Our training package was $62 million. That included facilities, work-force recruiting and training. That was state money. And then we had some others - roads and those kinds of things - that really were ballpark figures.

Then we had estimated state and local noneducation tax abatements that totaled $114 million. That was for 10 to 20 years, depending on the tax.

There were also other funds that would have been spent to improve rail extensions to the site and (on) public road improvements. (Source: Huntsville Times.)