The Governor's Office of Economic Development Board this week offered P&G a tax-rebate incentive package that could be worth as much as $85 million if the company agrees to construct the plant and hire as many as 1,000 Utah workers over the next 20 years.

"This will be an amazing project for Utah if we're successful in getting them to build here," said Jason Perry, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development. "We've been working on this for well over a year."

The incentive package is the largest ever offered by the state and dwarfs the previous record of $15 million that was tendered in March 2006 for the IM Flash Technologies manufacturing plant in Lehi.

GOED Board chairman Ragula Bhaskar said P&G has a number of options available to them, such as expanding existing plants instead of building a new one.

"What we are trying to do by offering this incentive is to level the playing field so that building a new plant in Utah will not cost them any more than pursuing one of their other alternatives," Bhaskar said.

The incentive package would return to the company about 30 percent of the new state tax revenues its plant would be expected to generate over the first 20 years of its operations.

Utah, however, also is competing with several other states that hope to lure the company that makes such well-known products as Bounty paper towels, Charmin toilet paper and Puffs tissues into building a new plant within their borders.

If Utah is successful in persuading P&G to build its plant in the state the new facility could generate as much as $98.5 million in additional tax revenue over 10 years and $280 million over 20 years, Perry said.

And it could boost the total wages paid in the state by more than $1 billion over the 20 year life of the incentive package.

Celeste Kuta, spokeswoman for P&G's Paper Products Division said the company is studying all of its options including expanding one of the division's five existing plants in Missouri, California, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

"There is no definitive date on when we will make a decision," Kuta said. "And whatever ends up being proposed will have to go all the way up to our chief executive officer for his final approval."

The state is anticipating that if P&G ultimately builds the plant in Utah that other companies will move into the area to support the new facility's operations.

"If we are successful this will be the first time that a Fortune 25 company has chosen to operate in Utah," Bhaskar said. "It will show the world that we can play in the [economic development] big leagues."