The last time we addressed the massive online retailer Amazon.com, New Mexico’s political leadership was falling all over themselves (along with economic development staff nationwide) trying to get the “HQ2.” To the surprise of no one New Mexico was not chosen as the HQ2 location which instead went to the DC area and New York (which AOC and her acolytes successfully pushed out).
But, in writing the posting yesterday about New Mexico charging GRT on online sales AND shipping I started to wonder whether the GRT might be keeping Amazon out of New Mexico entirely. Well, Amazon certainly isn’t going to tell us WHY they do not have a fulfillment center in New Mexico, but you can find a list of their fulfillment centers worldwide here.
Notably, New Mexico is completely absent from that list. Will New Mexico get an Amazon fulfillment center? Is the GRT at least partially-responsible for their lack of investment in the State? Whatever the cause, you can see a regional map of Amazon’s fulfillment centers that Rio Grande Foundation put together. New Mexico’s absence is noteworthy.
I assumed you’d be praising AOC for being part of what nixed the HQ2 deal in NYC given the $3B in incentives Amazon slated to get. They were more effective in flushing a corporate give away than any local advocates in NM are on this topic. Credit were credit is due.
I am mixed in my take on the nixing of the Amazon deal. In general we oppose those kinds of giveaways (read the details of what Amazon was getting here). That said, compared with New Mexico’s film incentives I’d gladly accept the deal Amazon got in New Mexico because at least Amazon would be locating semi-permanent facilities here.
So, I don’t disagree with WHAT AOC and her allies did although the news reporting leads me to believe it was more based on NIMBY than a principled stand against subsidies. Either way, certainly didn’t mean to imply that we opposed her on this specific issue.