Failed bid to land Amazon HQ had $2.5B in incentives

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state of Missouri offered Amazon nearly $2.5 billion in incentives spread over 10 years in its failed bid to lure the company's second headquarters to the state, according to figures released Friday by the state Department of Economic Development.

The state proposed building an "innovation corridor" between Kansas City and St. Louis to provide employees and sites for Amazon. The state's two big cities also submitted their own bids for the headquarters.

The proposal to the online retailer was one of about 240 bids from across the country trying to land the Amazonheadquarter, which the Seattle-based company promised would bring up to 50,000 jobs and an investment of more than $5 billion.

On Thursday, Amazon whittled the list down to 20 potential sites, and the three bids from Missouri didn't make the cut.

In the state's proposal, the $2.42 billion in incentives would have funded seven different programs, including $1.36 billion in refundable tax credits.

When announcing the bid last October, Missouri chief operating officer Drew Erdmann said the innovation corridor would include Columbia, the home of the University of Missouri. It also would have provided a labor force of close to 3 million people, and given the employees the option of living in rural, urban or college-town cities.

Other parts of the proposal included incentives to locate the headquarters in a distressed area of the city, tax credits to invest in rural broadband, individual income tax deductions for Amazon employees who relocated to Missouri and refundable contribution tax credits in return for Amazon's investments in science and technology-focused educational programs for Missouri's youth.

The state also offered to create a fund operated by a public board that would invest in Amazon securities and fund local infrastructure projects as determined by the board and another program to provide refundable tax credits to offset the tax costs of bringing offshore funds back to the U.S. and invest them in Missouri.