$100 million Incentive Packages: US 13, EU 5. Have I Missed Any?

I am reworking my list of the top 25 subsidy packages in the U.S. for a new article I'm working on. In my book, Investment Incentives and the Global Competition for Capital, I used the top 25 projects from 1999 to early 2008. For the article, the table will cover 2001 to the present. In addition, I am interested in uncovering all incentive packages of $100 million or more since early 2008. In the European Union, there are only five $100+ million incentive packages in the last three years. (Source: European Commission, search for cases with decision date after 1/1/2008 and Primary Objective of Regional Development.)

In the United States, by contrast, state and local governments have given at least 13 packages with a nominal subsidy value of $100 million or more since early 2008. (As with the book, I will be calculating their present value, because that is what the European Union does; this allows for better comparability of subsidies and, besides, present value is the more meaningful figure.) Before I send this article off, I want to make sure I haven't missed any, which is why I am asking for your help. Please let me know if there are any projects I've missed. I will, naturally, acknowledge you in the article.

First, here is a corrected version of the table that appeared in the book. In the course of writing a report, not yet published, for the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center, I discovered that our estimate of Google's subsidy in North Carolina was too low. It is corrected here.

Company	Year	City	State	Present Value
Boeing	2003	Everett	WA	$1,984,400,000
Advanced Micro Devices	2006	Malta	NY	$1,118,000,000
ThyssenKrupp	2007	Mount Vernon	AL	$734,304,000
Scripps Research Institute	2003	Palm Beach County	FL	$566,500,000
IBM	2000	East Fishkill	NY	$533,083,333
Volkswagen	2008	Chattanooga	TN	$450,139,048
Kia	2006	West Point	GA	$353,083,333
Toyota	2006	Blue Springs	MS	$291,634,000
Nissan	2000	Canton	MS	$289,666,667
Sematech	2007	Albany	NY	$269,444,444
Hyundai	2002	Montgomery	AL	$233,936,363
Ford	2006	Detroit	MI	$219,780,000
Toyota	2003	San Antonio	TX	$218,100,000
International Sematech	2002	Albany	NY	$175,636,364
Dell	2004	Winston-Salem	NC	$174,230,401
Goodyear	2004	Akron	OH	$173,099,088
Samsung Austin Semiconductor	2006	Austin	TX	$171,244,444
Eli Lilly	1999	Indianapolis	IN	$150,916,667
Marathon Oil	2007	Detroit	MI	$148,800,000
Honda	1999	Lincoln	AL	$144,221,818
Google	2007	Lenoir	NC	$140,592,593
General Motors	2000	Lansing	MI	$138,844,542
Alenia/Vought	2004	Charleston	SC	$133,133,333
Dell	1999	Nashville	TN	$132,373,334
Hemlock Semiconductor	2007	Hemlock	MI	$124,226,666

Source: Investment Incentives and the Global Competition for Capital and author's calculations

While researching this new article, it occurred to me that Kansas City, MO, has given several tax increment financing (TIF) subsidies that exceed the lowest value in this table. In fact, four Kansas City TIFs should have appeared in the table: KC Live, H&R Block, Pershing Road, and Three Trails (source). KC Live, the smallest of these, had a nominal subsidy of $167.9 million. To the best of my knowledge, the EU does not approve subsidies for retail, and I know for a fact that it does not approve them in the steel industry (ThyssenKrupp in the table above, Nucor in the table below).

The following list was begun by identifying the "top projects of the year" for 2008-10 according to Site Selection magazine. Pursuing news stories to determine the incentive package details led to the discovery of several other projects of at least $100 million in nominal subsidy value.

Company          State           Minimum nominal incentive package

AREVA             ID              $276.6 million present value
Nucor                LA             $373 million
Hemlock            MI             $358.4 million
Spirit Aero         NC            $250.9 million
Cerner/OnGoal  KS             $230 million
Hemlock            TN            $200 million
Electrolux          TN             $188.3 million present value
Ford                  KY            $180 million
Boeing              SC              $900 million
Apple                NC            $320.7 million
Xtreme             MI              $100 million
Schott               NM            $130 million
Panasonic         NJ              $102 million

Thus, in the last three years, there have been at least 13 deals for $100 million or more in the U.S. (though the last three may fall below $100 million in present value) compared to just five in the European Union. The deals in the U.S. are larger, too: the largest deal in the EU is for Global Foundries (formerly Advanced Micro Devices) in Dresden, Germany, where EU state aid rules allowed it to receive 211.0 million euros, about $284.9 million. Not only is this dwarfed by what South Carolina gave Boeing, Global Foundries is asking New York State for $1 billion for a new wafer fabrication plant there. As I will argue in the article, new evidence continues to demonstrate that the EU is  successful in reducing the investment incentives granted to mobile investors there, compared to what they get for similar projects in the U.S.

Again, these results are preliminary, but striking. Because of the EU's centralized register of cases, it is more likely that I may have missed 9-figure subsidies in the U.S. than in the EU. Of course, please let me know if I've missed any in either place. Thanks!