HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) -- Arkansas and Texas are working on an incentive package to convince Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. to keep open its tire plant in Texarkana, Gov. Mike Beebe said Wednesday.
Beebe said Texas has contributed to a package being presented to the company to help keep open the plant, which is located on the Arkansas side of the border city.
"It's an important employer. We want to keep them here," Beebe told reporters. "Our people have been talking until they're blue in the face to do all we can to convince them."
Cooper Tire is considering closing one of its U.S. plants. Cooper's other sites are in Findlay, Ohio; Albany, Ga.; and Tupelo, Miss. Mississippi officials are proposing to give Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. $30 million in financial incentives to keep the company's Tupelo plant open.
The company has said that sales of replacement tires are forecast to decline slightly and that it is under cost pressures.
Beebe would not say how much the state is proposing in incentives to keep the Arkansas plant open, but said it's not near the $30 million pitched by Mississippi officials.
"It is a healthy sum. ... We're putting our best foot forward within the parameters and resources we have available combined with local, state and interstate," Beebe said. Beebe said that utility companies are also offering incentives to help keep the plant open.
Texarkana's economic development director has said Cooper Tire's economic impact on the region is "easily $200 million" within a 50-mile radius from Texarkana, Ark. The plant has 1,400 workers. Local officials say Cooper Tire annually pays between $90 million and $100 million in direct wages.
