If you’re a small business owner, then you probably can’t relate to the full court press from what seems like all of New England—and the rest of America for that matter—hoping to lure Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to choose their city or state for its second headquarters. You might be saying to yourself “no one put on a press conference to have me move to start a business.”
Which is why I like the approach New Hampshire is taking. Yes, it wants Bezos. But it doesn’t have to fund HQ2 with tax breaks residents end up paying.
“Everyone else is still trying to play catchup to this tax incentive we created in 1789 – no sales tax and no income tax,” said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu in unveiling the state’s official bid. “We don’t play in the game of giving massive tax breaks,” Sununu said. “Other states have to do that because they have massive taxes. … Everyone else is still trying to play catch-up to New Hampshire. This provides a gateway opportunity to promote that.”
But, as some are asking, where will the projected 50,000 new Amazon employees live? At home, of course, since about 120,000 New Hampshire residents commute to Boston, Massachusetts everyday.
If states and cities were more business friendly like New Hampshire, we wouldn’t have politicians selling their souls to Bezos. Instead, they could turn the table on Bezos and ask him: Why is Amazon good for our residents and local businesses?
