As Maryland's General Assembly debates a proposed $5B incentive package to lure Amazon HQ2, a new report says the economic benefits to the state would be much greater.
The Sage Policy Group report, produced on behalf of the Maryland Department of Commerce and Montgomery County, said winning HQ2 would pump $7.7B in new wages into the economy and create over $17B in total economic activity, the Washington Business Journal reports.
The study also said landing Amazon's second headquarters would create over $750M in new tax revenues, at least $482M for the state and $270M for the county. It noted that these estimates could be low, because it did not consider potential impacts of increased local entrepreneurship, port activity and travel through Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Montgomery County was one of 20 contenders Amazon moved on to the next round of the selection process in January. D.C. and Northern Virginia were also included on the shortlist, but they have been far more secretive about the incentive packages they plan to offer Amazon. The e-commerce titan said its 8M SF second headquarters would bring roughly 50,000 new employees to whichever area it chooses.
