Last month, as reported by GlobeSt.com, the news surfaced that the telecom giant was considering combining its corporate headquarters, currently located in New York, and its Verizon Wireless headquarters, currently in Bedminster, NJ, at one site. Since then, officials have announced that the corporate flag will stay in Manhattan, but that much of the company's operations would indeed be consolidated elsewhere. The company is said to be looking at sites in Northern Virginia, and in New Jersey, including the vacant former AT&T campus in Basking Ridge.

Under the offer unveiled yesterday afternoon, Verizon would stand to get a grant of approximately $64 million. The BEIP program, administered by the New Jersey EDA, rebates to the recipient company an amount equal to one-half of the state income taxes paid by employees over a 10-year period. Current estimates regarding Verizon put that number at about $128 million.

That estimate is based on Verizon keeping its existing 2,400 employees already in the state, and adding an estimated 2,000 new positions at a consolidated operations center, according to state officials. A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment, saying only that the telecom giant continues "to size up our options."

"[Acting Governor Richard Codey] has made it very clear that we want to keep the existing Verizon positions, and to attract new ones," state treasurer John McCormac said when announcing the offer. "We are trying hard to retain jobs and create new ones."

The BEIP grant, if accepted by Verizon, would be the second biggest under the ongoing program, second only to the $170 million Goldman Sachs stands to collect over the next decade for creating jobs on the Jersey City waterfront. Verizon itself has already garnered nearly $400,000 in BEIP money as part of three earlier grants awarded in 2002 and 1997.

The latest offer joins two other proposals on the table in the battle to keep Verizon in New Jersey. Last week, the state offered nearly $3 million in incentives related to retaining existing jobs, and earlier agreed to waive sales taxes related to the cost of outfitting any new facilities.