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Carrier Corporation, which makes heating and cooling equipment, announced in February that it was moving facilities to Mexico where labor costs are significantly lower than in Indianapolis.聽The company now appears to have聽聽a deal with President-elect Donald Trump and his Vice-President-elect, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, to keep its Indiana facility in place in exchange for millions of dollars in state tax incentives.聽

Promising to keep manufacturing jobs in America if elected, candidate Trump singled out Carrier in his speeches. So, over the Thanksgiving holiday, negotiator-in-chief-elect Trump got on the phone with the chair of Carrier鈥檚 parent company, United Technologies (UTC), and said, 鈥淵ou gotta help us out here,鈥� according to the聽. This plea doesn鈥檛 quite match Trump鈥檚 tough campaign聽聽to 鈥渢ax the hell out of [Carrier]鈥� if they leave.

Trump is used to negotiating agreements, particularly over聽, but he is normally taking the goodies rather than doling them out. As with other聽, though, he鈥檚 doing it with other people鈥檚 money, in this case Hoosiers鈥� tax dollars. Indiana has some creative聽聽like its Economic Development for a Growing Economy () credit, which lets companies keep a share of the income taxes withheld from their employees. With the new deal,聽聽will receive $5 million in EDGE credits and $2 million in training and investment grants.

On its own, this Carrier deal is unimpressive. For $7 million over 10 years, the company will retool the plant, investing about $16 million and retaining 800 jobs that were slated to move to Mexico. Not sure that鈥檚 a great return on investment and if the deal really required any new state incentives.

Carrier already received聽聽incentives from the state. And Carrier has already received聽聽for advanced manufacturing from the feds as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which Pence聽聽when he was congressman. Also, according to watchdog聽, UTC, the parent company, has received almost $900 million in federal, state, and local grants and credits.

So the bigger question is: Are tax incentives really why Carrier stayed? They are still relocating production from Indianapolis to Mexico and one of its suppliers, United Technologies Electronic Control, also owned by聽, is closing a plant in northern Indiana.

The reversal is great news for the Indianapolis workers who get to keep their jobs, at least for now. Manufacturing jobs pay more and usually have benefits like health care and retirement programs. But it鈥檚 a bad deal for the other Carrier workers and Indiana taxpayers. First, Governor Pence and his predecessor, Mitch Daniels, cut taxes drastically--which was supposed to spur the economy and presumably reduce the need for discretionary tax incentives. Now, all of the other companies and taxpayers will continue to pay for the incentives to keep Carrier. 聽

What we don鈥檛 know is what the federal government has promised by way of the yet-to-be president. But what鈥檚 worse, the Carrier deal sends a bad message to other companies in Indiana like聽听辞谤听聽who鈥檝e also announced pending closures: Trump鈥檚 plan to make the US more competitive will be negotiated one company at a time.聽 So line up outside Trump Tower and take a number.

This story originally appeared on .