Dell returns $1.5 million in incentives to state

RALEIGH, N.C. — Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) has repaid more than $1.5 million to the state of North Carolina after the company announced that it was closing a large computer assembly plant in Winston-Salem.

The Department of Commerce said Tuesday that the company fully returned grant payments from 2006 and 2007. Officials in Winston-Salem have said the company is also in the process of repaying $26 million in local incentives.

The repayments were for two Job Development Investment Grants made to Dell by North Carolina in 2006 and 2007.

The grants, called JDIG, are actually rebates on state withholding taxes paid by Dell. The contract between Dell and the state required certain levels of new jobs in order for the rebates to be paid.

In 2006, Dell received $567,000.

In 2007, Dell was rebated another $945,000.

Dell also qualified for a JDIG grant in 2008 but will not be receiving that money, according to the Department of Commerce.

Local, state and economic development officials had promised more than $300 million in state and local incentives to lure Dell to the region. The company announced earlier this month that it would close the four-year-old facility by the end of January. More than 900 workers will lose their jobs.

Officials in the Triad, the Department of Commerce and Dell are putting together a task force to help find a new tenant for the massive plant.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines formed the task force in order to "find a user who would be generating as many good, quality jobs as we can find.”

The Dell plant covers more than 700,000 square feet.

Dell is laying off more than 900 workers and preparing to offshore the PC assembly jobs to Mexico and other locations.

Joines is also spearheading efforts to get Dell to repay million of dollars it received in local tax incentives in building the plant in North Carolina.