WEEHAWKEN, JERSEY CITY, AND BEYOND — On Thursday the state of New Jersey said they would award a $27 million tax break to UBS Financial Services in order to keep 2,000 employees in Weehawken and Jersey City instead of leaving the state.
According to a report in the Record of Hackensack, UBS, headquartered in Switzerland, told the state Economic Development Authority that it was considering moving to Tennessee, Connecticut, and New York City.
The six-year grant of $4.5 million per year was granted under the Business Retention and Relocation Assistance Grant, which provides tax credits of $2,250 per job for companies considering leaving.
The company must agree to keep the jobs in the state for at least five years.
Incidentally, the credit is a different kind than the $102 million credit extended to Panasonic recently to keep the company in the state. The company recently said it would move from Secaucus to Newark. Secaucus officials complained because they believed it was unfair to reward a company for leaving their town. Newark is one of a few towns that are included as destinations in the state’s Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit law, so Panasonic was able to get that kind of credit because it is moving to Newark, but not if they stayed in Secaucus.