A Koch-backed group started an ad campaign Wednesday aimed at dissuading local governments from lavishing Amazon with taxpayer-funded benefits to win the company’s second headquarters.
Generation Opportunity, a group within the Koch network that engages with millennials, rolled out a video bashing “corporate welfare” for Amazon, to run on social media in the 19 U.S. localities that are finalists for the headquarters.
“Unfair corporate welfare deals like the ones being lobbed at Amazon fuel cronyism, are conducted in darkness, and force small businesses to subsidize their competition,” said David Barnes, policy director for the group.
Many of the cities and counties have offered Amazon major tax incentives for the placement of the headquarters, which the company says will entail $2 billion in investment.
New Jersey officials, for example, offered Amazon $7 billion in state and local tax incentives for choosing Newark. Columbus, Ohio, offered a 15-year, 100 percent property tax abatement.
Some of the finalists have suggested that they haven’t offered Amazon major incentives, which are common for areas seeking to lure companies. But the terms of all the bids are not public. Some localities also have pledged benefits beyond tax breaks, such as the offer from Maryland’s transportation secretary for $2 billion in transportation improvements in Montgomery County.
The minute-long Generation Opportunity video includes text that reads, “While small businesses and young entrepreneurs struggle, government cuts special deals with Amazon, a corporation that raked in $175 billion last year! Does this look like a company that needs taxpayer cash?”
A spokesman for Generation Opportunity declined to say how much it would spend on the ads, but said that it would run on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, targeted at 18- to 38-year-olds in the 19 areas in the U.S. that are finalists. Toronto is the 20th finalist.
