May 13, 2018
Since I and others have raised questions about Jeff Bezos–owned paper’s boosterism of Amazon when it comes to the location of the company’s second headquarters, it is worth calling attention to this very fair piece that points out some of the downsides of having Amazon in the DC area. There are two issues that might have been worth more attention.
The piece notes that the specifics of the incentives being offered by the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia have not been made public. This certainly raises the possibility that the hit to budgets in these areas could be very large if Amazon were to choose either as a destination. While the secrecy is noted, it would have been worth making the point about this risk more explicit.
The other is that the company is openly using the threat of moving jobs to get Seattle to reduce or eliminate a payroll tax it is considering for large companies. This certainly raises the possibility that Amazon may engage in similar behavior if it locates in the DC area and one or more of the governments attempts to raise taxes to meet public needs.
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