The state offered United Technologies Corp. $100 million in incentives against the planned closure of Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine plants in Cheshire and East Hartford, in a bid to save 1,000 jobs.
Hartford-based UTC is the largest employer in the state of Connecticut, with its divisions including Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Fairfield County”™s largest employer. Pratt & Whitney has about 11,000 workers in Connecticut.
State aid would be conditioned on both short-term and long-term job retention requirements. The plan would include lifting the 70 percent cap on corporation business tax credits for UTC; the creation of a new job-retention tax credit; building an engineering center of excellence; investments in equipment; and training assistance.
Other details not immediately provided as state officials met with company executives over the outline of a plan.
“Losing jobs at the Cheshire engine center and Connecticut airfoil repair operation in East Hartford would be a blow to our state,” Rell said, in a prepared statement. “A state-of-the-art engineering center of excellence can accommodate the thousands of engineers that work at Pratt and other aerospace businesses now, and help expand the number of engineering jobs in the future while also serving as a powerful recruitment tool for the company and the state.”
