FloDesign’s State Subsidy Up in Smoke

By Paul Gipe

Among all those who lost money in the FloDesign-Ogin fiasco is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Compared to others the state lost a relatively modest amount of $3 million.

According to a 9 April 2010 article by Erin Ailworth of the Boston Globe, FloDesign gets state aid to stay, then Governor Deval Patrick awarded FloDesign $3 million to stay in the state. In turn, FloDesign promised to hire “more than 100 people.”

Whether FloDesign did hire more than 100 people and whether there was in fact other states luring the tech company to relocate is not known.

What is known is that the state spent $3 million on a failed tech venture that was backed by the state’s then governor.