Ohio said to offer $400M lure for Sears offices
COLUMBU.S., Ohio — Ohio has pitched $400 million in incentives to lure Sears' corporate headquarters away from Illinois, far more than that state was preparing to offer to keep the retailer in suburban Chicago, a spokeswoman for Illinois' governor told an Ohio newspaper.
Ohio's package is "basically about four times" what Illinois was considering putting on the table to keep Sears Holdings Corp. from leaving, said Brooke Anderson, press secretary to Gov. Pat Quinn. She told The Columbus Dispatch ((http://bit.ly/u0L4n6 ) Sears executives mentioned the $400 million figure during a recent Illinois House committee hearing.
Sears has not confirmed anything about incentive offers and is not commenting on them, said Kimberly Freely, a spokeswoman for the company. Sears wants to have the question of its headquarters settled by the end of December, she said.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich would not talk specifics about the state's offer on Wednesday but instead joked that "we are somewhere between $0 and $400 million."
"We put the best package together we could. Do we have a shot? Yes, but I want to maintain my position that you don't know," Kasich told the Dispatch. "What I'm pleased about is, we're pitching. We're in the ball game."
A person familiar with the negotiations said in early October that the parent of the Sears and Kmart chains was looking at Columbus, Ohio, and Austin, Texas, as possible new locations, if the company decides not to stay in the Chicago area. Sears has 6,200 employees at its headquarters.
Illinois officials have been pushing a $250 million package of tax breaks for Sears and several other major businesses threatening to leave the state. The measure was dealt a setback Tuesday when it was rejected by the Illinois House, but legislative leaders said they hoped a deal could be reached in the coming days or weeks.
The tax package would renew a $15 million income tax credit and a break on local property taxes for Sears.