Capital Broadcasting wants the General Assembly to produce legislation “to meet the criteria Amazon has outlined” to bring its new headquarters here.
Those criteria include specifications on “land, tax credits, workforce grants and other needs.” We’re told that it all “far exceeds the kinds of current incentive limits” we have. We have to give more.
Today The News & Observer includes another criterion: mass transit. Specifically, Amazon “wants ‘direct access’ to mass transit – ‘rail, train, subway/metro, bus routes.'”
As if the transcendent nuttery of promising the company a full refund on taxes for a quarter century isn’t enough! Not to mention all the other incentives, current and (as discussed above) future.
The expense of building a transit system here to suit Amazon’s taste would task the English language to describe. Consider the same issue is bedeviling the Atlanta area:
In today’s Marietta Daily Journal, we have an account of a Monday meeting between Gov. Nathan Deal and Cobb County leaders. The latter are worried that they — and Gwinnett County — might be left out of the hunt for a new Amazon.com headquarters because of transportation issues.
Deal has promised an all-out effort to capture the economic development prize. But the dot.com giant has listed access to transit as a condition for a $5 billion second headquarters that could eventually employ 50,000 — which would seem to leave swaths of suburban Atlanta out of the running.
Amazon also seeks an educated populace, but in my view, any populace foolish enough to fall for Amazon’s pop-diva-esque demands would necessarily disqualify itself on that score.
On second thought: That’s an unfair comparison to pop divas. I wish Amazon were only requesting “Juicy Baked Chicken: Legs, Wings & Breast only (Please season with fresh garlic, season salt, black pepper, and Cayenne pepper HEAVILY SEASONED!!)”
North Carolina does, after all, have a history of changing incentives structures for Miley Cyrus.
