Whirlpool to return $800K in Indiana incentives

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Whirlpool Corp. will return $800,000 to the state of Indiana to resolve tax credits and incentives it received to retain jobs in Evansville.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. said Tuesday that Whirlpool agreed in 2009 to preserve 260 full-time Evansville jobs so it could keep tax credits the company had previously been awarded. Whirlpool made the pledge after a major layoff at a refrigerator plant that the company closed the following year. Whirlpool still has a product development center in the southwestern Indiana city, but it employs only about 230 people.

Whirlpool recently moved some of the jobs it had retained in Evansville to its headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich.