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Faraday Talks Get Underway In Special Session

Alexa Ard

Nevada lawmakers will soon decide whether to grant extensive tax breaks for electric car company Faraday Future, which is planning a $1 billion factory near Las Vegas. Their special session kicked off Wednesday night and comes just a year after rival carmaker Tesla was lured to the state with its own lucrative incentives. 

Reno Public Radio's Julia Ritchey is in Carson City and tells us that many legislators have serious questions about the deal.

Julia's also live tweeting the latest updates from the legislature.

Governor Brian Sandoval is summoning lawmakers after just announcing a major deal with carmaker Faraday Future to bring a massive, 3-million-square-foot manufacturing plant to North Las Vegas.

In exchange, Sandoval is asking the state assembly to give Faraday more than $200 million in tax abatements over 15 years. Additionally, the company would receive $115 million from the state in infrastructure upgrades around the planned site.

“For me, I'm looking for clarification on what the benefits are going to be to Nevada in exchange for these abatements," says Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a Democrat representing Washoe County.

“I think there's a legitimate question to be asked," Benitez-Thompson adds, "about whether subsidizing one big company comes at the expense of other smaller and moderate-sized businesses.”

The deal comes about a year after Palo Alto carmaker Tesla decided to put a $5 billion battery factory outside of Reno in exchange for more than $1 billion in tax abatements — the largest incentive the state had ever given.

Benitez-Thompson is not the only legislator with concerns.

“I have stood up throughout session and been against tax abatements for large corporations,” says Assemblywoman Robin Titus, a Republican from Lyon County. She opposed the Tesla incentives and is so far unconvinced that the Faraday deal is much better.

Titus says she's also skeptical of the Chinese billionaire backing Faraday, which has about 500 employees and is led by several former Tesla executives.

“They have not produced one item yet," she explains, "and also, as a foreign investor, who do we hold accountable if this thing folds? Are our taxpayers going to be left holding the bill, and how do we get that back?”

“I come from a school of thought that our state should offer incentives to attract new and diverse businesses," says Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford. "You're looking at the sponsor of the film-tax credit.”

Ford says all of Clark County stands to gain from bringing Faraday to the state. They plan to employ about 4,500 workers.

To put more Nevadans back to work, Ford says any deal they reach must have a strong workforce development component.

“I have insisted and we will see a component within the workforce program that will have a diversity requirement.”

As with Tesla, Faraday will have to hire half of its workforce from within the state. 

Faraday Future has yet to bring a car to market, but company officials hope to bring one as early 2017.  

Julia Ritchey is a former reporter at KUNR Public Radio.
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