FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Senate committee will hear a bill Wednesday that aims to collect $15 million from a company that failed to construct an aluminum mill in Eastern Kentucky.

“On behalf of the taxpayers of the commonwealth, I don’t want $15 million back,” Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Taylor Mill) said. “I want an aluminum mill in Ashland.”

McDaniel’s bill, Senate Bill 48, directs part of the Cabinet for Economic Development to recoup the state’s investment from the company formerly known as Braidy Industries.

In 2017, Kentucky lawmakers spent money to help the company — now known as Unity Aluminum — to build its aluminum mill at the request of then-Gov. Matt Bevin.

The project was supposed to create hundreds of jobs in Eastern Kentucky, but it never materialized and the Braidy Industries founder Craig Bouchard left the company in 2020 amid questions about his use of company funds.

“I think it’s a tragedy on every level,” McDaniel said. “It’s a tragedy financially because the commonwealth invested $15 million to attract this plant and the only thing worthwhile that they’ve done is spend $6 million to get the original con man out.”

The bill gives Unity Aluminum until the end of 2022 to pay the money back before a lawsuit could be filed against the company.

“So my ideal (scenario) would be the organization simply steps up and says, ‘We didn’t get the job done” and returns the money,” McDaniel said.

The deal raised questions about how the legislature offers incentives to businesses, something McDaniel said they need to be more careful about, at least when it comes to providing money upfront.

“You have to perform and earn the incentive,” McDaniel said. “This idea of just funneling upfront cash to an organization is a bad idea. Those are speculative investments that the private sector needs to be making, not the government.”