LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada is authorizing more than $300 million in tax abatements to Tesla over the next two decades.
The Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development Board made the announcement on Thursday morning.
"Tesla has far exceeded every promise they made going back to 2014," Governor Joe Lombardo said. "To date, they have invested $6.2 billion in Nevada, built a 5.4 million square foot Gigafactory, which provided 17,000 local construction jobs and created more than 11,000 highly paid permanent jobs."
That Gigafactory was first built back in 2014 and launched with an initial investment of $3.5 billion dollars.
Tesla said it's looking to add four million square feet in two new factories at its existing Gigafactory site at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, about 20 miles east of Reno-Sparks along Interstate 80.
One will be used to produce batteries for 1.5 million light duty vehicles annually.
The other will be Tesla's first Semi factory.
The economic development board said the new projects will create an estimated 9,275 construction job and 5,858 additional indirect and induced jobs through 2027. This level of construction activity could result in a one-time economic impact of $2.8 billion over the next years.
At a special legislative session in 2014, state legislators passed a law that would trigger tax abatements for large development projects. Qualified projects that make $3.5 billion in investments in a 10-year period could be eligible.
According to the Governor's Office of Economic Development, Tesla has received over $410 million in tax abatements since 2014.
However, the office said between property taxes, annual sales taxes, business license taxes on utilities, and businesses taxes, the company is expected to generate an estimated $685 million in net state and local revenues over the next 20 years.
