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LORDSTOWN -- Attorney General Dave Yost said he was left "scratching his head in astonishment" over the Ohio Tax Credit Authority's decision to shelve action on whether General Motors should repay the state all or some of $60.3 million in tax breaks the automaker got for its former Lordstown assembly plant.
The board had planned as late as Friday to consider the matter when it met Monday, but it was removed from the agenda ahead of the meeting.
"There hasn't been a new fact or a new argument or a new piece of information in the last 60 days and the matter is fairly clear. They made a promise in return for a truck load of money, they got a truck load (of money) and didn't fulfill their promise," said Yost, a Republican, who before said GM should repay every cent of the incentive.
The matter, he said, has implications greater than the Mahoning Valley.
"This is actually a statewide story because if we are not going to hold GM accountable under this contract, why do we have contracts with any of these people because we are not going to hold them to it," Yost said. "There are other companies that are watching what is going on here … ."
Todd Walker, a spokesman for Ohio Development Services Agency, said it's "not uncommon" for items to be removed from an agenda. The matter, according to Walker, would be heard at a future board meeting. The board next meets Sept. 28.
Also removed from board action was GM's request for a job creation tax credit for the $2.3 billion electric vehicle battery-cell plant under construction in Lordstown.
The plant is immediately adjacent to GM's former assembly plant, which churned out vehicles for 53 years until GM shuttered it in March 2019. That closure is what led the state to try to clawback some of the previous incentives, claiming GM broke its agreement by closing the plant.
In 2009, GM was awarded $14.2 million in job creation tax credits and $46.1 million in job retention tax credits to be used to improve the Lordstown plant to support the production of a second-generation Chevrolet Cruze.
GM received a 75 percent, 15-year job retention tax credit for committing to retain 3,700 full-time workers in Lordstown and a 75 percent, 15-year job creation tax credit in exchange for committing to create 200 new full-time jobs and retain the existing 3,700.
Instead, the company closed the plant and in last November sold it to electric truck startup Lordstown Motors Corp.
GM argues it should be spared from repaying the state, claiming doing so "would be inconsistent with the spirit of economic development and our significant manufacturing presence" in the state and the Mahoning Valley.
The automaker points to its large presence in Ohio, which includes several plants, nearly 4,000 hourly and salaried workers and investments of more than $3.3 billion since 2009, and the battery-cell plant on Tod Avenue SW that will employ about 1,100 at full production.