Let's Talk New Mexico 11/16 8a: New Mexico is one of dozens of states and communities vying for Amazon鈥檚 second headquarters. Many places are promising hefty incentives to land the deal, just as we did unsuccessfully several years ago for a Tesla facility. Should New Mexico offer incentives to lure big companies that could jumpstart our economy? Email letstalk@kunm.org, use the hashtag #letstalkNM on Twitter or call in live during the show.
Amazon has promised the successful bidder in this competition will get $5 billion in investment and 50,000 jobs. Supporters say this gets us on the radar of big employers, even if we don鈥檛 land a big project. But critics say multimillion dollar corporations are using incentives to pit communities and states against one another, with corporations the ultimate winners. Meanwhile, in New Mexico we have the second highest unemployment rate right now and we鈥檙e seeing a brain drain of our best and brightest workers.
- Does this kind of gamesmanship makes sense for our struggling economy?
- Should we be thinking big by bidding for Amazon or other big employers?
- How else are officials at the municipal and state levels working to help companies start and expand here, especially home-grown companies?
Additional reading:
- Good Jobs First
- - Good Jobs First
- s - Reuters
- - Las Vegas Review Journal
- - Vox
- - Las Cruces Sun-News
- - NM Political Report
- - Albuquerque Journal
- - Associated Press
- - Denver Post
