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GREENSBORO — RF Micro Devices was shot down by the Guilford County commissioners Thursday.

The board rejected the microchip maker's $1.03 million incentive request, breaking a long string of company successes in getting taxpayer money for its expansions. The vote was 8-3, with many commissioners who had supported the company before turning away this time.

A key point for some board members: They think RF Micro will build here anyway.

"Is RF Micro going to do this whether we give the million dollars or not?" asked Republican Mike Winstead, who voted against the request. "I think they will."

But that's up to the company, which proposed spending $103 million on a new microchip wafer plant and creating 300 jobs at Greensboro's Enterprise Park.

The company is also considering sites in High Point, Winston-Salem, China, and the United Kingdom for the plant, said Suzanne Rudy, vice president and corporate treasurer. A decision will be made when the company's board of directors meets next week, she said.

"The incentives are important to us," Rudy told the board.

The City Council had approved $1.2 million in incentives for the expansion, and a state package could have brought the total to about

$7 million had the commissioners signed off Thursday. But they didn't.

The result was an unfamiliar one for RF Micro, which has seen county officials pledge $4.3 million for its expansions from 1999 to 2006, more than for any other company.

The homegrown chipmaker has become a local success story since it was founded here in 1991 with just a handful of employees.

Now, the company has nearly 2,000 local workers and was the county's No. 5 taxpayer for 2006. An economic development official told commissioners that the company has never had a layoff, and the new jobs would pay an average of $42,000 per year plus benefits.

The incentive request even brought out Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday, who wore a blue-and-white button that read "JOBS."

"I'm here because I'm nervous," Holliday said. "I truly believe we stand to lose this project."

But commissioners said it was difficult to give money to such a large company when small businesses were struggling. Others didn't like that most of RF Micro's investment would be in equipment, not buildings. Others mentioned the recently passed county budget, which raised property taxes for the sixth time in seven years.

"Our funds are limited are far as incentives go," said Republican Linda Shaw.

Now, everybody must wait for the company's decision.

"You may do this whether we give an incentive or not," Democrat Kay Cashion said. "Maybe it's a gamble."

Commissioners who voted for the incentives were Cashion, Carolyn Coleman and Kirk Perkins.

In other business, commissioners:

l Agreed to spend as much as $150,000 to contract with a company to put out the fire at the decommissioned Wild Turkey Road Landfill in southeastern Guilford County. The county will try to recoup the cost from the landfill owners.

l Passed a resolution opposing a bill before the U.S. House of Representatives that would require the use of a voter-verified paper ballot nationwide. Guilford County would have to make expensive changes to its equipment to comply , Elections Director George Gilbert said before the meeting.

"Basically, we'd end up having to throw away a lot of the equipment we purchased last year or spend millions of dollars retrofitting it, one or the two," he said.

Contact Nate DeGraff at 373-7024 or ndegraff@news-record.com