According to the WEDC memo, 56 percent of Ashley employees make less than $10.88 per hour, which is the wage standard WEDC uses when determining if a company is meeting job creation goals. Radspinner said the board was not happy with the wages. But he said the company deserves credit for its health insurance benefits, which the memo said cover 76 percent of an employees’ premiums.

Arcadia Mayor John Kimmel said losing Ashley would have statewide repercussions.

“They’re not going to invest tens of millions in the local economy to do anything other than stay and expand and be part of our community,” Kimmel said.

The $6 million in refundable credits would total more than the eight state awards Ashley Furniture has received since 1988 and two awards to the city of Arcadia. The most recent was a $675,000 award in 2013 for an $8 million expansion of the company’s Whitehall plant, which is expected to create 225 jobs over three years. So far the company has created 79 jobs and has received $256,706 from that tax credit, Maley said.

Enterprise zones are considered the best kind of state financial awards to companies because they can be applied to so many different types of economic activity, such as worker training and capital improvements, and can result in refundable credits, Jadin said.