MIDDLEBOROUGH — When Middleborough gave REXA Inc. a 10-year property tax break, town officials pointed to the jobs it would bring.
What the town wrote into the deal was much weaker. The agreement asks REXA to make reasonable efforts to give equally qualified Middleborough residents priority for new jobs. It does not require the company to hire a single one.
REXA’s new headquarters and plant is now open, the company is hiring, and REXA will not answer the most basic question about the deal: Has it hired anyone who lives in Middleborough?
The G.O.A.T. News has asked that question repeatedly, most recently in emails to Sarah Rocco, REXA’s human resources director. The latest request asked for an answer by the close of business Tuesday. None came. In August, when The G.O.A.T. News first reported on the hiring question, REXA did not respond to two voicemails, an email or a reporter’s visit to the plant.
A review of town records by The G.O.A.T. News shows a deal that discounts REXA’s taxes on its new plant for a decade in exchange for job promises the town cannot enforce, and town documents that described those jobs three different ways.
What the town gave and what it got
- Tax break: 10 years, on the new value the project adds to the property. The exemption starts at 80 percent in each of the first two years and declines after that, averaging about 56 percent over the life of the deal.
- Investment: about $33 million for a roughly 112,000-square-foot headquarters and plant at the Campus at Canopy Drive industrial park.
- Jobs: keep 100 existing full-time jobs and create 25 new permanent full-time jobs within five years.
- Local hiring: reasonable efforts to give priority to equally qualified Middleborough residents. No required number, no deadline.
- Reporting: employment and local-hiring information to the town.
- Projected spillover: about $1 million a year in local spending, a figure from REXA’s consultant.
REXA’s side was pleased with the result. “Through BDS’s expert guidance and strong government relations, Middleborough approved a substantial TIF package that aligns with our vision for growth,” REXA president Geoff Hynes said in a statement released by Business Development Strategies, the consultant that negotiated the tax agreement for the company.
The deal was negotiated under then-Town Manager Jay McGrail. The Select Board, then chaired by Mark Germain, voted unanimously in January 2025 to send it to Town Meeting, which approved it that April. “Middleborough is proud to support Rexa’s next chapter,” McGrail said in the consultant’s announcement.
Who pays
The discount comes out of property taxes the town would otherwise collect on REXA’s new building. Residents get no such break on their own tax bills.
Under the agreement, the town gives up that revenue for 10 years whether or not a single Middleborough resident lands one of REXA’s jobs. If none do, town taxpayers will have helped pay for a plant whose paychecks go to people who live somewhere else.
The revenue matters in a town under financial strain. This spring, Middleborough cut 26 positions from its fiscal 2027 budget to close a deficit, according to Select Board minutes.
The job numbers kept growing
REXA’s consultant listed the company’s commitment as 100 existing jobs retained and 25 new ones.
The town described the deal in bigger terms. The Select Board’s section of the 2024 annual town report said the $33 million project would create “25-50 permanent jobs while retaining 100 existing positions.” The town’s fiscal 2026 budget book went further. In a section on Middleborough’s S&P bond rating, it listed “REXA TIF agreement – 150 new jobs” among the town’s local economic gains.
None of those figures guarantees a single job to a Middleborough resident.
Local hiring was raised, then left out
Local hiring was part of the public discussion before the vote.
At a Select Board meeting in August 2024, member Thomas White asked REXA representatives whether the company would post job openings on the town’s website before advertising them elsewhere, giving residents a first chance to apply. REXA representative Ken Garron said the company would be willing to discuss the idea, subject to equal-opportunity employment rules, according to the minutes.
At the Finance Committee, member Matt Phillips asked how REXA would give local residents priority. McGrail later told officials that REXA planned to give priority to qualified Middleborough residents for new positions.
The town had the chance to turn that expectation into a requirement. The signed agreement leaves it as an effort. It sets no number of local hires, no deadline for them and no consequence if none are made.
The agreement does call for REXA to report employment and local-hiring information to the town. That lets the town ask what REXA has done. It does not let the town require a result.
What the terms cost Middleborough
The terms the town accepted carry consequences that last as long as the tax break.
Local hiring is only an effort under the agreement. If REXA hired no Middleborough residents at all, it would not be breaking the deal, and the town could not cut or take back the tax break on that ground.
The hiring report the agreement calls for gives the town information with no remedy attached. If the report shows few or no local hires, the town can make that public. It cannot change the terms.
The approach has already been repeated. The draft agreement the town published for Indus, a second company moving to the same industrial park, spells out job counts, annual reports and a way for the town to recapture forgiven taxes if Indus falls short of its obligations. On local hiring, it asks Indus to “give priority to qualified Middleborough residents,” with no required number.
Meanwhile, the town’s own budget book credits the REXA deal with 150 new jobs, a figure the agreement does nothing to require.
What the town could have asked for
Other tax agreements, including one Middleborough wrote itself, show terms the town could have sought from REXA.
- A local-hiring floor. New Bedford’s tax increment financing program requires companies to create at least 10 jobs “with the majority filled by New Bedford residents.” A set number or share of local hires would have given Middleborough a figure to hold REXA to.
- A first look at openings. Select Board member Thomas White’s 2024 idea, posting REXA’s openings on the town’s website before advertising them elsewhere, could have been written into the agreement as a requirement.
- A tax break tied to results. The town’s own draft agreement with Indus lets the town recapture forgiven taxes if the company falls short of its obligations. A clause tying REXA’s discount to local hiring would have given the town a remedy.
- Public reporting. A requirement that REXA’s hiring report be filed by a set date each year and made public would let residents check the results themselves.
None of those terms would have guaranteed that Middleborough residents get hired. Each would have given the town a number to measure, a deadline to enforce or a remedy if REXA fell short.
The plant is open, and REXA is silent
REXA announced its move into the new Middleborough headquarters in August. Its architects describe a finished plant that houses the company’s offices, engineering, research and development, machining, assembly, testing and shipping. The company is hiring for manufacturing, engineering, machining, assembly and quality positions there, according to its job postings.
REXA has publicized the move. It has not said how many of its workers live in the town that discounted its taxes.
REXA still has time to meet its five-year target for 25 new jobs. It could meet that target without hiring anyone from Middleborough.
- How many Middleborough residents has REXA hired at the new plant?
- How many of its roughly 100 existing employees live in Middleborough?
- How many of the 25 promised new positions has it filled?
- Did it post openings on the town’s website first, as Select Board member Thomas White asked in 2024?
- Has it filed the employment and local-hiring report the agreement calls for?
- How much in property taxes will the town forgo under the REXA agreement, year by year?
- Has the town received REXA’s employment and local-hiring report, and will it make the report public?
- Why did the fiscal 2026 budget book credit the REXA agreement with 150 new jobs?
- Can the town reduce or recover the tax break if REXA does not create the 25 new jobs?
- During negotiations, did anyone on the town side propose a binding local-hiring requirement?
The G.O.A.T. News will report REXA’s answers if the company responds.
Barrella serves on the Middleborough Finance Committee and the Town Manager Search Committee. The Finance Committee discussed the REXA agreement in August 2024, when Barrella was its chair. Finance Committee member Matt Phillips, named in this story, co-hosts The G.O.A.T. Podcast. The Town Manager Search Committee has no role in the agreement.
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