Amazon HQ2

[brando]

Originally Posted by paul78701

In hindsight, Amazon didn't really give most cities enough time to put together incentives packages. I hadn't thought about this before, but Austin can't be the only city that requires a process for such things. I would think that Amazon would understand that.

Yes they did. Many other cities are proposing incentives and most of them are run better than Austin is. The problem isn't that there isn't enough time. The problem is the Austin City Council can't make decisions efficiently. Delay=Better

There have been 7 full city council meetings, 4 special meetings and 4 work sessions between the announcement and now.

Here is a list of places that have offered tax incentives: Memphis, California State, Chula Vista California, Worcester Massachusetts, Maryland State, Philadelphia, Irvine California, Newark, Atlanta and likely many others.

Originally Posted by lzppjb

Just because incentives aren't in the pitch doesn't mean they won't be there eventually. I'm sure Amazon understands that.

The Atlanta bid is "the most aggressive economic attraction package that the state of Georgia has ever put forward." That's one of many reasons why they are going to get it.


Why would Amazon understand incentives could come later? They asked for bids to choose from. If it doesn't include something then it's not finished and shouldn't be sent in. I guess if they have a "finals" round but it seems like the point is to give cities to put together whatever they are offering so they can simply choose the best option.

If the city felt like they could promise incentives then they would of but that is not the climate we are in. Leslie Pool won't vote for it. Ora Houston don't read any briefs and just votes no on anything that involves development. More than half the council asks for "more time" to just delay shit even when they are asking for information that has already been provided. They just think that things have to arbitrarily take more time.

You also have to worry about the state legislature coming in 2019 and overriding local corporate tax incentives. They were SUPER HARDCORE about "corporate welfare" and they tried to take away all of the governors discretionary funds.

The city was better off with the pre 10-1 council. Things will get better once the community activists leave office but there is a legacy condition on council term limits that will easily allow council-members to go beyond their 2nd term. I'm betting Tovo does it so she can run for a 3rd time.