After five months of looking around — Wells Dairy announced today it is keeping its company headquarters in Le Mars. Well’s C-E-O Gary Wells says the deciding factor in staying in Le Mars was the 10-million dollars offered in state and local incentives. That includes local officials building the campus for the headquarters and leasing it to the company. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack commented on the decision this morning before leaving for the ceremony. He calls it good news for northwest Iowa and good news for the entire state. Vilsack says a change pushed quickly through the legislature to give companies a tax break for leasing rather than owning offices was part of a package that helped seal the deal. He says the values fund, the changes in the new job and income level, the effort at the local level all made a difference. He says it’s another success story for the Iowa Values Fund. Vilsack, a democrat, hopes this will lead the legislature to approve permanent funding for the Values Fund. He says they’ll have to push the legislature to look at it again next year, so the state can continue its success. House Speaker Christopher Rants today released crediting fellow members of the House for working quickly to make the changes in law to help keep Wells in the state. Rants said in a statement.” This is a direct example of how nimble we were in responding, and this shows our steadfast commitment to make Iowa a beacon of economic growth. This is another in what I hope will be a long line of economic development success stories for this state.”
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