By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-871474.mp3
LANSING, MI –
A state board has approved tax credits to help ensure that General Motors keeps its headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. Company officials told the Michigan Economic Growth Authority that without the tax break, the company might have to move its headquarters out of the city. The deal calls for GM to keep at least 2,500 of the four thousand workers employed at its world headquarters.
Governor Granholm says she supports the authority's decision.
"The city benefits enormously from having the employees there at the Renaissance Center, but there's also - it's iconic, it is, it's a symbol, and for it to abandon Detroit would send a terrible message, I think," she says.
GM officials objected to the provision requiring the company to keep at least 2,500 employees in the city. The governor and state economic development officials indicated that number might have to be renegotiated.