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Fact fund-017

newrecordconfirmed Inside the $106.7M tax credit: Valar projected $213M in new state taxes and 275 jobs; it must stay 10 years
2026-07-09 · fund-017 · Valar Atomics, Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity, Emery County · maximum REDTIF credit: $106,737,499; projected new state revenue over 10 years: $213,474,999; projected new state wages over 10 years: $337,864,790; projected withholding over 10 years: $11,402,937; projected capital investment, Emery County: $1,299,110,000

The GOED board's executive summary for Valar Atomics Inc. (9 July 2026) adds to csite-024 and gov-033: timeline '2026'; Emery County (county class 5); capital investment $1,299,110,000; 275 full-time jobs at an average wage of $137,567; projected new state wages of $337,864,790, new state revenue of $213,474,999 and withholding of $11,402,937 over 10 years. The credit is 50% of new incremental state tax revenue above the prior 12-month baseline, paid yearly after the revenue is received, capped at $106,737,499, with a contractual recapture of any excess. Conditions: meet the job projections at 100% of the county average wage, keep the operation in Utah for the 10-year incentive period, count only jobs and revenue created after board approval, and get a local incentive proposal approved by GOED's Incentives Committee, since incentives are 'site specific and subject to local incentive participation'. The company overview says Valar aims to power data centers, hydrogen production and synthetic fuels from 'gigasites'. Set beside the record: on 7 April 2026, asked what incentives the county had given Valar, the answer recorded was 'None', and a commissioner added that Valar had 'not even asked' for a tax incentive (gov-033); the state credit cannot be earned without a local incentive, and none for Valar had been found on county agendas through September 2026 (gov-033); in April 2026 Valar said it employed 120 people in Emery County, many not living in Utah (loc-004). The capital figure covers far more than the one test reactor described to residents in 2025 (orig-045).

In plain termsTo win the tax credit, Valar told the state it would invest about $1.3 billion in Emery County, create 275 jobs paying about $137,500 a year on average, and generate about $213 million in new state taxes over ten years. The credit pays back half of those new taxes, up to about $107 million, only after they come in; Valar must keep operating in Utah for ten years, and any overpayment must be returned. The county still has to add its own incentive before the deal is complete, and none has been found yet.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-verified 2026-09-29: GOED executive summary and proposed motion re-read; every figure and condition matches; quotes exact. Clarified that the April 'not even asked' remark concerned county incentives.

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