Honeywell International, Inc., obtained significant incentives from the state of New Jersey to move its corporate headquarters from Minneapolis to New Jersey. Now, the diversified firm is announcing plans to move its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina. Will a business transaction be the result?
After moving its headquarters to New Jersey, Honeywell was purchased by Allied Signal in 1999. The merged company kept the Honeywell name. The company is now in the fourth year of a ten-year deal with New Jersey to receive $40 million in tax credits to remain in the Garden State. The company says that it will keep about 1,000 employees at various locations around the state and doing so constitutes compliance with the agreement.
North Carolina has dangled some significant incentives for Honeywell. Mecklenberg County, which includes Charlotte, will give Honeywell $28 million in incentives. Charlotte will add another $18 million. The exact nature of the incentives was not disclosed. Honeywell executives said that the move is being made to give executives closer access to Honeywell’s several operations in the region. Not surprisingly, Honeywell also cited North Carolina’s flat corporate income tax of 3% that compares favorably with New Jersey’s 9% rate. According to one tax research institution, North Carolina’s corporate tax is the lowest among states that charge a corporate income tax.
Many companies, large and small, receive a variety of incentives to move their headquarters or a significant portion of their operations to another state. New Jersey has not expressed any criticism of Honeywell’s move, but the Honeywell jobs that remain in the state may placate state officials and forestall any litigation.
