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Ohio Gave GM Money For Lordstown. Now The State Wants It Back

By Jo Ingles

Published June 30, 2020 at 10:35 PM EDT

Ohio gave General Motors some $60 million dollars in state tax credits for to bolster its Lordstown operation. Now the attorney general is demanding the company pay the state back.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says the state gave GM $60 million back in 2009, based on promises that the company would maintain its operations there through 2028. But GM shuttered the plant last March, eventually selling it to electric truck startup Lordstown Motors. Now, Yost has a message for GM.

“Yeah, we want our money back," Yost said.

The bottom line is GM didn't do what it promised, Yost said. If the company is allowed to keep the money, it will have "carte blanche to walk away from its other Ohio tax incentivized operations. And so will every other business," Yost wrote in a brief to the Ohio Tax Credit Authority.

Yost said the GM closure caused the loss of nearly 8,000 jobs and $8 billion in regional economic activity. If GM fails to repay the state, Yost said he’s prepared to take the matter to court.