WASHINGTON D.C. (WTAQ) - Wausau House Democrat David Obey calls Polaris “unpatriotic” for moving much of its work to Mexico. The maker of snowmobiles, ATV’s, and Victory motorcycles said Thursday it would close its engine and parts plant in Osceola in northwest Wisconsin.

And by 2012, many Polaris operations will be located in the area of Monterrey Mexico. The Osceola plant has over 500 workers – and Polaris said some of the work would move to its plants in Minnesota and Iowa, while other suppliers could buy Osceola’s equipment and keep running things there.

Still, Congressman Obey said it’s “outrageous” that Polaris is moving to Mexico. And, “They owe better than that to every American who has ever bought their products – and they owe better than that to the U.S. taxpayers, since millions of taxpayer dollars have been used by the government to purchase their products over the years.”

Polaris had a 20 percent drop in its sales last year, as the recession forced many people to cut out big ticket items. But the firm began to recover in the first part of this year, as revenues grew 16 percent from the same time in 2009.