WEDC to provide $9M in tax credits to Exact Sciences
Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Judy Newman
Exact Sciences is preparing for big growth as its Cologuard test to screen for colorectal cancer gains ground, and the Madison company will get the state’s help to do that.
The quasi-public Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. is offering up to $9 million in tax credits if Exact Sciences hires another 758 full-time employees, at an average wage of $24.47 an hour, and pumps $26.2 million into capital expenditures such as buildings and equipment — all by the end of 2020.
“This is an extraordinary incentive to continue growing jobs and our company, right here in Wisconsin,” said Kevin Conroy, chairman and chief executive of Exact Sciences.
WEDC said it is the fourth-largest award it has offered, in terms of projected job creation.
Exact Sciences has 430 employees, with more than 300 at the labs or at company headquarters at 441 Charmany Drive in the city of Madison. About 100 sales representatives are stationed around the U.S., and a small office in London will have 10 employees by the end of March.
Conroy said about 50 percent of Exact’s scientists and lab workers are graduates of UW-Madison.
Conroy said in an interview earlier this month that Exact Sciences will double its staff to more than 800 by the end of 2015, with about 600 of the jobs in the Madison area. The WEDC agreement calls for a substantial jump beyond that.
Conroy said the company will need more space and is looking at a number of locations in the area, “inside and outside of Madison,” he said.
Since moving to Madison six years ago, Conroy said, the company has paid more than $5.2 million in payroll taxes to the state.
Gov. Scott Walker congratulated Exact Sciences for its success.
“This is great news for Madison, the region and the entire state because it will result in the creation of hundreds of family-supporting, high-tech jobs,” Walker said in a statement
