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WINSTON-SALEM (MCT) — Forsyth County's board of commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to offer Caterpillar Inc. a $10.15-million incentives deal to help bring the heavy-equipment manufacturer to the county.

A similar incentive package from the city of Winston-Salem was approved by the City Council's finance committee last night and will be considered by the full council on Monday, after a public hearing.

What's at stake is a proposed $426 million, 850,000-square-foot plant where workers would manufacture and test the earth-moving and agricultural equipment that Caterpillar produces. The plant would create jobs for 392 employees tied to Caterpillar and 118 contract workers.

''Projects of this magnitude rarely come along," Bob Leak told county commissioners last night during the county's public hearing. Leak is the president of Winston-Salem Business Inc., which has worked to recruit Caterpillar.

If the effort succeeds — Winston-Salem is competing with Montgomery, Ala., and Spartanburg, S.C., for the plant — Caterpillar would build its factory on 100 acres beside the Dell Inc. computer-assembly plant off Union Cross Road.

Under the county deal approved Monday night, the county would chip in $3.75 million for land, plus another $6.4 million tied to Caterpillar's tax payments over a 10-year period. Even so, Leak said, the county would during that time net $7 million in tax revenues above the amount of incentives granted.

In total, the city of Winston-Salem would offer Caterpillar about $13.35 million to build a factory here. That's not counting an additional $1 million the city will apply for from the Golden Leaf Foundation to buy manufacturing equipment that the city would lease to Caterpillar.

The Golden Leaf Foundation is a private grant-giving organization that was created by the state General Assembly to help areas affected by the decline in tobacco production.

The city's own contribution would include $3.75 million for land, plus $9.6 million that would be paid out in annual payments over 10 years, starting the July after Caterpillar had made its first full-year property tax payment. The city would make those annual payments using a percentage of the property taxes Caterpillar would pay each year.

City officials say the city would net about $5 million under the deal, not counting any sales tax returns.

Both the city and county are requiring Caterpillar to meet capital-investment and job thresholds or pay back incentives — a lesson learned in dealings with Dell.

''This is such a well-protected deal, with the experiences we've had," Mayor Allen Joines said. "And it is a deal that pays for itself."

Dell was offered $38 million in local incentives, and another $267 in state incentives in return for creating 1,700 jobs at a production plant in Forsyth County. Officials expected businesses that support Dell to bring another 4,500 to 6,500 jobs to the county. Instead, Dell never employed more than 1,400 people. Officials say that no more than 500 indirect jobs were created because of the plant.

The N.C. Commerce Department is considering offering Caterpillar up to $50 million in state incentives, according to sources who have declined to be identified.

The plant is scheduled to be operational by the first quarter of 2012, said Deputy Winston-Salem City Manager Derwick Paige.

''Without this assistance, Winston-Salem would not be in the running for this project," Paige said.

Although no one spoke in outright opposition to the Caterpillar deal at the county's public hearing, pharmacist David Marley said he and other pharmacy owners object to a Caterpillar agreement that gives preference to Walgreens and Wal-Mart.

Marley asked that local and state officials require Caterpillar to allow all pharmacies to participate in the company's network under the same terms that Walgreens and Wal-Mart get.

''We are not asking a lot," Marley said.