This past week, we got the answer the nation has been anxiously awaiting – Where will Amazon locate HQ2?
In my view, we all need to put this whole issue into some perspective. First, I am convinced that Amazon knew exactly what they were going to do before all the bidding began. I wrote about this on September 11th of 2017. I referred to a Brookings Institution expert on these things, Richard Shearer.
Shearer argued that Amazon had already selected the site (actually, 2 sites) before the bidding process began, in order to extract more incentives in the end. Looking back, it would appear Mr. Shearer was correct from the beginning.
Is it coincidence that the two sites selected in the New York City and Washington DC metro areas both are close to homes Jeff Bezos owns? I don’t think so.
I am also suspicious of the last minute decision to award this economic development prize to two separate sites, not just one as was originally proposed. Was that the plan from the beginning?
I saw a Twitter post just after the decision was announced from Hayleigh Columbo, an excellent reporter at the Indianapolis Business Journal. Here is the Twitter post:
Hayleigh, I lived in Indy a good part of my life, growing up here in the 50s and 60s. Trust me, Indy had a much bigger inferiority complex then. Sadly, the city deserved it at that time. This entire metro area is a much better place to live now compared to when I was in my formative years here. The Indy area would not have come close to making the top 20 for a big “get” like Amazon in those days.
Fishers has a specific connection to the Central Indiana Amazon bid. Our Mayor Scott Fadness was instrumental in fashioning the bid the Indy metro area submitted to Amazon. Fadness was clear that Fishers was not a good candidate to land the HQ2 complex itself, but Fishers would have benefited greatly had Amazon come here. I am certain a large number of people moving to the area would choose to live in Fishers.
Now that the process is over, there is one aspect of this that bothers me. We all know some costly incentives were included in the Indy-area bid for HQ2. Much of the offer almost certainly involved public support, in the form of tax benefits and even taxpayer support.
It is my belief that the Indy area governmental entities owe it to the taxpaying public to provide the details of what was offered to Amazon. I do not buy into what many public officials are saying, believing that only the news media cares to know this information.
The public, in my view, is entitled to this information. It is our tax money that was part of that offer and we all deserve to know. There is no legitimate argument any longer supporting secrecy now that the decision has been made and Amazon did not accept our offer.
Based on everything I am reading, there are no plans to publicly reveal the details of the Indy metro Amazon bid. I believe that is a very bad decision.
I would urge all public officials involved, and the many entities outside government part of putting this bid together, to allow the taxpaying public the details of what you offered in all of our names. I am not optimistic this will happen, but enough public pressure could change some minds in high places.
In the meantime, Amazon and elected officials on the winning side of the bidding process are dealing with some fairly stiff political blow-back now that their deal is publicly known. Let’s see how that ends.
