Nevada may give Tesla Motors as much as $1.3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives as it works to seal the deal on the automaker's planned battery "gigafactory."
The state has been vying with California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to become the location of Tesla's $5 billion battery plant, a project that will purportedly bring tens of thousands of jobs and boost the local economy.
Demonstrating the importance Nevada has placed on the factory, Gov. Brian Sandoval has ordered the Nevada Legislature into a special session to discuss the possible tax break package, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Sandoval believes the battery plant jobs will boost the faltering Nevada economy, which is going through "the worst economic crisis in the history of the state," he wrote in the formal proclamation Tuesday night.
The lithium ion battery plant, which Tesla says will cut its battery costs by as much as a third, will bring more than 20,000 construction jobs and other positions to Nevada. The state's economy should grow by around $100 billion in the next two decades, Sandoval said.
Slated to open in 2017, the upcoming Tesla facility will have a workforce of around 6,500.
The special Nevada Legislature session is expected to cost $60,000 for the first day and $25,000 for each additional day, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.
So far, lawmakers have shown little opposition to the proposed $1.3 billion in incentives, and they are expected to approve the package by Thursday night or Friday, the Associated Press reported this morning.
Critics of the Tesla tax breaks say that the state is taking a risk with taxpayer funds; however, Gov. Sandoval predicts that Nevada will earn back $80 for each dollar of investment.
Opponents are concerned that the large incentives package will benefit huge corporations and not the average middle-class Nevada family.
"All the lobbyists for various interests say that unless you have a hand in the Tesla deal, it's not good for you," said Bob Fulkerson, state director for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.
"But everybody then also says that it's a done deal," he told the AP on Wednesday.
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