It was late in 2018 when we learned the Indianapolis area would not be landing the HQ2 jobs windfall promised by Amazon. Two areas were awarded sites, New York City and the Washington DC area.
However, public blow-back in New York City resulted in Amazon pulling its plans there. The DC project is moving forward.
Back on November 18, 2018, I posted a story about the local aftermath of the announcement. One point I made clearly was that local officials had a responsibility to reveal what public funds were offered to Amazon by Indiana and local governments.
The answer came back “no.” Governments had run the central Indiana proposal through the Chamber of Commerce, partly to shield the details from the public, even after it was all over.
After posting that commentary on November 18, 2018, I had several local Fishers officials tell me they still need to keep the HQ2 proposal secret because it contained proprietary information, or “trade secrets” of some sort. That’s right, governments offer of public money was described as a trade secret.
I respect the officials making that argument because I believe they are sincere in making such a case, but in my view, that is a totally wrong way to approach offering large amounts of public money to the private sector.
Why do I bring this up again now? Because I am not the only one making this argument.
The Indianapolis Star has a new columnist, James Briggs, and he has done some very good reporting for the newspaper and was recently promoted to opinion writer. He is doing a very good job as a commentator so far, in my view.
His latest column once again beats the drum that Indiana and its political subdivisions involved in offering public money and assets to Amazon have a responsibility to make it all public now. Briggs details how other states have finally come clean on the details, with surprising results. In Kentucky, the Louisville Courier-Journal has won a court decision to make that offer public, yet the government is still appealing that decision.
Briggs goes chapter and verse how other states have revealed their offers. Some of the numbers revealed are staggering.
I once again call on the public to demand that their elected officials do the right thing and make public all details of the offer Indiana made to Amazon in the effort to land the HQ2 jobs prize.
You can read James Briggs’ column at this link.
(NOTE: You may be limited in how many free IndyStar stories you may access in a month. My suggestion is you buy a subscription to the Star and held keep columnists like James Briggs writing. Get your subscription at this link)