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Indiana will give millions in tax breaks to keep Carrier jobs

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH/AP) – Details about the deal with Indiana and Carrier are beginning to emerge on Thursday afternoon.

Seth Martin, a spokesman for Carrier, said Thursday that Indiana offered the air conditioning and furnace manufacturer $7 million in tax incentives after negotiations with Trump’s team to keep some jobs in the state.

Indiana economic development officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company’s decision is something of a reversal, since earlier offers from the state had failed to sway Carrier.

Trump threatened during the campaign to impose sharp tariffs on any company that shifted its factories to Mexico. And his advisers have since promoted lower corporate tax rates as a means of keeping jobs in the U.S.

“Big day on Thursday for Indiana and the great workers of that wonderful state. We will keep our companies and jobs in the U.S. Thanks Carrier,” Trump tweeted Tuesday.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, Carrier will invest about $16 million to keep the plant open in Indianapolis. Carrier once said that they would be saving $65 million each year by moving to Monterrey Mexico.

By enabling Carrier’s Indianapolis plant to stay open, the deal spares about 800 union workers whose jobs were going to be outsourced to Mexico, according to federal officials who were briefed by the heating and air conditioning company. This suggests that hundreds will still lose their jobs at the factory, where roughly 1,400 workers were slated to be laid off.

Trump will tour the factory with Pence – who, as the outgoing governor of Indiana, was well-situated to aid negotiations – and then the president-elect will give a speech about the deal, aides said.

Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence will speak at Carrier on the far west side of Indianapolis at 2 p.m.