States offered incentive packages worth $7 billion (€6.2 billion), $8.5 billion, $9.7 billion, any of which would have set records. But now Amazon will walk away from the largest and most public subsidy auction in history with relatively few giveaways to show for it. “Suddenly the green curtain was pulled back,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, which has lobbied against public subsidies for years. In New York, public polling as recently as last week showed that a majority of New Yorkers supported the state’s deal with Amazon. Amazon chose Virginia, even when Maryland offered it access to the same labor market for 10 times as much money.

Source: The Irish Times February 15, 2019 09:00 UTC