JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation Friday authorizing $240 million in tax incentives for a Canadian airplane maker. It remains to be seen whether that's enough to land Bombardier Aerospace in Missouri.

The new law represents Missouri's largest-ever offer in the international competition for big-ticket business projects. Although crafted for Bombardier, it also could serve as model for future endeavors.

Bombardier is the world's third-largest civilian plane manufacturer and is looking for a place to make its new series of 110- and 130-seat regional passenger jets. Missouri is promoting land near Kansas City International Airport as an alternative to Bombardier's previously expressed preference of Mirabel, Canada, just north of its Montreal headquarters.

The law enacted by Blunt would offer up to $240 million in tax credits over eight years, beginning in 2013, based on the number of employees the company hires at the plant. Bombardier would repay the tax credits, plus a 5.1 percent rate of return, by giving Missouri a fixed amount of money for each plane it sells from the plant.

Kansas City also would issue bonds under which the city would own the property and lease it to Bombardier.

Bombardier wants to build a $400 million assembly plant and flight testing site that eventually could employ 2,100 people, with an average wage of $63,000. Economic development officials project the assembly plant could lead to the creation of an additional 5,000 jobs connected to its operations.

The enactment of Missouri's incentives package is no guarantee it will get the plant, though.

Bombardier announced in May 2005 that it had signed letters of intent with the Canadian and Quebec governments to assemble its new C-Series planes in the Montreal area in exchange for about $350 million in government incentives.

But the declining value of the U.S. dollar has led Bombardier to take a second look at the United States. Because Bombardier sells its planes in U.S. dollars, it could prove more profitable to also pay for their assembly with U.S. currency, instead of Canadian money.

Bombardier officials have said they will seriously consider the Missouri offer, which they helped negotiate.

If it gets enough orders for the planes, the company could announce an assembly plant location as soon as this July at the Farnborough International Airshow in England.

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Bombardier bill is HB2393.

On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov