Wisconsin agreed to fork over $8.1 million to the U.S. Housing & Urban Development Dept. to repay some of a $12.3 million grant aimed at luring Abbott (NYSE:ABT) to put its headquarters there – a headquarters that was never built.
The grant was used to set aside a 40-acre parcel in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., where Abbott planned to build. The plant was forecast to create some 2,400 new jobs over a decade, but it was never built and the land is still undeveloped.
Abbott, which is based just over the Illinois state line from the parcel in question, began buying up a 467-acre plot in 2005; the parcel in Pleasant Prairie was meant to be added to Abbott’s land. Now Wisconsin must pay back $8.1 million, according to the Kenosha News.
The repayment is part of Walker’s 2015-17 budget proposal and would mostly consist of reductions in future community development block grants, the newspaper reported.
The grant became a campaign issue during Walker’s bid for re-election last year against Mary Burke, the former commerce secretary who approved the HUD loan.