[sjm-lbm]

If a city waves taxes for Amazon, they'll still have increased costs - say, increased road maintenance around HQ2 as those roads get used much more. Those costs still need to be paid for, and the burden will then move to smaller companies with less clout to negotiate a special deal.

Trying to get an ever-increasing amount of money out of people and organizations with less ability to pay that amount of money seems bottomish for me.

[JumpCrisscross]

They also have the opportunity to collect payroll, income, property and sales taxes in respect of the employees; seed a technology district; and collect taxes down the road. It wouldn't make sense for San Francisco to do this. But it can make sense for a Tier 2 city to pay Amazon for densification over sinking a similar cost into the riskier proposition of renovating a downtown plaza or whatever.