OPINION:
Shame on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for taking billions in “incentives” (the impolite would say bribes) from Virginia taxpayers as part of the deal state officials offered the company to locate its new facility in our fine Commonwealth (“Amazon ends suspense over HQ by picking New York, DC suburb,” Web, Nov. 14). That is money that could otherwise go toward our schools, roads, social programs and other needs properly funded by state government.
I don’t blame our governor, although it seems odd that Democrats are so fond of criticizing what they call “tax breaks for the rich,” but are only too eager to hand over a well-stuffed cash bag to a billionaire when it suits them. No; in all honesty, a Republican governor would have done the same, because they know that if they don’t, plenty of other state governors are willing to hand over a pile of loot on a silver platter. New York’s “incentives” offering to Amazon was nearly $3 billion, The Wall Street Journal says.
We should consider a federal-level law to stop this kind of zero-sum game of bidding wars by states and cities trying to attract businesses. I know Amazon’s employees will pay taxes here in Virginia. And yes, some state-level efforts to encourage business start-ups may sometimes be justified. But what can’t be justified is a shameless raid on the state treasury by a business that is fully mature, fabulously profitable and run by a CEO whose personal wealth is estimated at more than $100 billion.
Mr. Bezos, you are a business genius, but how about you act like a grown man? Pay your own way and your own business expenses. You want to be called a philanthropist? Well, philanthropists in the old days gave our cities beautiful libraries, built colleges and universities, and paid for new hospitals. They didn’t raid the state treasury to take wads of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.
DAVID BURNS
Springfield, Va.
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