Why You Shouldn’t Wish for Amazon HQ2 in Your City
My hometown of Pittsburgh is shortlisted for Amazon’s 20 cities where they could build a second headquarters. I love that the (other) high-tech company recognizes that our city is a great place to live, but you know what? I hope we were not chosen.
Amazon’s long and competitive decision-making process is daunting because it is like a larger version of what happens when a sports team wants a new stadium: the company is pushing the city to pay for its business expenses.
The winning city is likely to provide the company with significant tax breaks and still have to pay for infrastructure to support it. I would like my city to, say, have improved public transportation as a side effect of HQ2. But what price would the residents indirectly pay for this?
Seattle-based journalist Knut Berger told Business Insider that Amazon’s original headquarters pushed minority communities there, raised housing costs and increased the city ‘s homeless population . Seattle also ranks among the top 10 cities in the country with the worst traffic flow and does not have a good enough public transportation system to ease congestion. I think of my city, Pittsburgh, when I read about Seattle’s problems. Our housing costs are blessedly cheap to start with, ugh. But I can’t imagine any part of the city serving traffic for 50,000 employees. And our public transport sucks.
Amazon is reported to have poured $ 38 billion into Seattle’s economy and is promising $ 5 billion to any city that HQ2 eventually appears in. It might be worth it. But 20 cities compete fiercely with each other, and I am terribly interested in what my city offered them in terms of tax breaks or the presence of firstborns among residents. And do you know why I’m interested?
Because Pittsburgh won’t say anything . Officials rejected requests for public records , saying they did not want to jeopardize the competitiveness of their application and that they had signed a nondisclosure agreement with Amazon. “My goal is to win, not do what other cities are doing,” said one district leader . CNET reports that Indianapolis, Miami, Montgomery County in Maryland, northern Virginia, Raleigh and Los Angeles also declined to disclose any financial details.
Several other cities have provided partial information. Among those who seem to be open about their financial incentives, only Nashville said the tax break would be “absurd.” Atlanta is offering $ 1 billion. Newark is offering $ 7 billion. Chicago’s $ 2 billion offer reportedly includes a heartbreaking deal: workers will pay taxes as usual, but then the city will hand over that exact amount in Amazon dollars. Remember, this is your share of the money you pay to help your community. It’s like the start of one of those Snow Crash dystopias where corporations replace governments. “Many have criticized the provision of incentives to one of the world’s most valuable companies, calling it corporate welfare,” reports the Illinois News Network .
I believe paying a few billion to become a technology hub isn’t nearly as bad as another project in the Pittsburgh area where the state gives the oil company $ 1.7 billion in tax breaks for an environmentally hazardous project that only provides 600 permanent jobs. … So I guess it could have been worse? Just be careful what you wish for.