Thoughts on Amazon coming to New Mexico

Just under a year ago the Rio Grande Foundation wondered if/when the online retailing giant Amazon.com would have a warehouse presence in New Mexico.

Recently, of course, it was announced that Amazon would indeed be building a distribution center in Albuquerque and creating 1,000 or so jobs. Better still, so far as we know, while Bernalillo County is spending $6 million on infrastructure and utilities, no major subsidies were required to bring Amazon here.  This is pretty much ALL good news for the local economy.

Here are a few things to consider:

• Contrary to some on the left (see Tweet below), the issue of Internet sales taxes didn’t play a role in Amazon’s decision. They are a big company with lots of physical locations nationwide and actually lobbied FOR Internet taxation.  It is actually small businesses with one physical location that are most impacted by Internet taxes.

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• Recent changes to interpretations made by the US Supreme Court companies doing business online like Amazon only had to collect taxes on Internet sales if they had a physical presence. A few years that changed and New Mexico like many other states could collect sales taxes without a physical presence.
• While Amazon coming to town is good news for the local/State economy the overall economy is what matters, not the comings and goings of individual businesses. Rockwell just left. Amazon just came. There are many other businesses opening and closing every day. New Mexico remains relatively unfriendly to business and unless some needed policy reforms are enacted, that isn’t going to change.