Michael Hiltzik: Cities should respond to Amazon's squeeze play by saying no to subsidies
Amazon released its short list of contenders for its second-headquarters project on Thursday, and the news was bad. Whether it was worse for the hundreds of communities left out of the running or for the 20 so-called finalists is an open question.
Judging from the willingness of some remaining contenders to endow one of the world's richest companies with billions in handouts, we're going with the latter.
As we've been reporting since September, when the Seattle-based online retailer and tech giant announced plans to locate a $5-billion, 50,000-employee complex as its second headquarters somewhere in North America, offering tax abatements and other benefits to Amazon is exactly the wrong approach for civic leaders.
A project of this magnitude will impose untold burdens on the chosen host community and its residents that can be alleviated only with
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