State and local governments in the United States have already awarded almost $3 billion (and more that is hidden) in economic development subsidies to Amazon. While some of those subsidies, including its controversial HQ2 deal in Northern Virginia, are for white-collar offices or for cloud-computing data centers, by far the greatest number of deals have been awarded to the company for its warehouses – particularly the so-called fulfillment centers.
The company’s aggressive behavior seeking tax breaks and subsidy deals took off in 2012, when it hired a veteran incentives consultant and created an office within its public policy department to specialize in getting “corporate welfare.” Before 2012, Amazon had not received more than three awards per year; since 2012, it has averaged 19 per year.
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