Unmet promises
 Two of Florida's incentive programs, the Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund and the Qualified Defense Contractor Tax Refund, allow preapproved companies to get tax refunds for creating at least 10 jobs with wages that are at least 115 percent of the average wage in the state, county or metropolitan area. The state usually pays 80 percent of the refund and local government the other 20 percent. The governor's office, which administers the programs, staggers the refunds over at least four years so companies get refunds only after paying taxes and meeting scheduled job and wage targets. Between 1994 and June 2004, the state certified 512 business projects under those two programs, according to a Times analysis. So far, only six of those projects have been completed, getting state tax refunds totaling $3.2-million. Of the remaining 506 projects, 294 are ongoing and 212 have been declared inactive by the state. |
| Here are 44 projects that got partial tax refunds for meeting part of their scheduled goals, then were declared inactive and ineligible for further refunds because they failed to meet additional job or wage targets: |
| Company | County | Paid by state |
| Agere Systems | Orange | $85,000 |
| Agere Systems | Orange | $1,649,000 |
| Althin Medical Inc. | Dade | $110,400 |
| AmeriCredit | Clay | $166,400 |
| Arthur Andersen LLP | Sarasota | $1,021,940 |
| Atlantic Dry Dock Corp. | Duval | $198,360 |
| AvBorne Heavy Maintenance Inc. | Dade | $211,281 |
| Banco Popular | Orange | $126,920 |
| Barnett Inc. | Duval | $214,800 |
| Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. | Hillsborough | $181,600 |
| Casi-Rusco Inc. | Palm Beach | $60,000 |
| CGI Group | Pinellas | $79,899 |
| CGI Group | Pinellas | $87,328 |
| CGI Group | Pinellas | $116,227 |
| Chep USA | Orange | $69,210 |
| Creative Games International Inc. | Hillsborough | $23,369 |
| CuraGen Corp. | Alachua | $36,000 |
| Datametrics Corp. | Orange | $61,029 |
| Dayco Products Inc. | Marion | $323,400 |
| Household International | Hillsborough | $78,000 |
| Humana Inc. | Duval | $694,000 |
| InterVoice-Brite | Seminole | $176,000 |
| Joseph E Seagram & Sons Inc. | Palm Beach | $236,483 |
| Martin Marietta Corp. | Orange | $100,000 |
| National Auto Finance Co. | Duval | $104,500 |
| NEXTLINK Florida Inc. | Dade | $134,400 |
| Northrop Grumman Corp. | Duval | $42,312 |
| Northrop Grumman Corp. | Martin | $250,000 |
| Oracle Corp. | Orange | $904,000 |
| Oracle Corp. | Orange | $475,000 |
| Oracle Corp. | Orange | $188,100 |
| Oracle Corp. | Orange | $240,000 |
| Pan American World Airways Inc. | Dade | $49,178 |
| PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP | Hillsborough | $32,000 |
| ProSource Inc. | Dade | $135,000 |
| Proven Edge Inc. | Pinellas | $30,568 |
| Regeneration Technologies | Alachua | $106,600 |
| Rexall Sundown Inc. | Palm Beach | $46,875 |
| Standard Motor Products Inc. | Orange | $32,256 |
| Terra Networks Operations Inc. | Dade | $12,000 |
| Tom's Foods | Taylor | $27,600 |
| Uniroyal Optoelectronics | Hillsborough | $172,000 |
| USBI Co. | Brevard | $21,825 |
| Wartsila NSD North America Inc. | Broward | $29,400 |
| $9,140,260 |