Corporate kowtowing and Chicago's failed bid for Amazon

Amazon settled on New York City and Northern Virginia for its second headquarters, so cue months of face saving from Chicago policymakers. But don't they know that residents can see through it?

It's clear as day that the entire HQ2 process was a charade from the get-go, and Amazon walked away with sensitive city data on economic development plans and infrastructure investments that is sure to give the company a giant leg up over Windy City businesses for decades to come.

Here's a thought: Rather than serving up half-baked justifications and silver linings, Chicago lawmakers should finally level with taxpayers and release the bid. They must provide answers as to whether Chicago volunteered troves of economic development and infrastructure information.

And if they did, lawmakers must vow to jettison this give-away-the-store approach that makes it nearly impossible for local companies to compete.

By fielding bids from 238 municipalities, Amazon obtained details about public education and transportation systems, local talent pools, and unoccupied land and real estate. For example, San Francisco's 160-page proposal describes major housing development plans and offers a chart with a neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdown.

Wisconsin's bid includes statistics about university and college graduates and what kind of degrees they got. Toledo's bid provides details about possible sites for a major corporate headquarters, including zoning, ownership and even the various utilities companies that deliver services to each site.

Did Chicago's bid similarly include labor and wage rate information; existing programs and partnerships with universities; transportation information; housing capacity; crime rates; healthcare costs; energy costs? If so, Amazon could develop plans to expand into a neighborhood of its choice and force out small businesses that had no chance of seeing the tech giant coming.

This is a lopsided competitive advantage that threatens Chicago's economic ecosystem.

The toll on Windy City businesses and local economies across the country could be disastrous. Amazon has already rapidly expanded its shipping and distribution network and gained an unprecedented competitive edge. Now, because of the HQ2 bidding process, Amazon knows when, where and how communities plan to invest - data every local business should have access to as well.

Chicago lawmakers need to swear off giving away massive amounts of data in desperate attempts to get a major corporation to do business in the city. And while they are at it, they should tell Amazon that they can well afford to build future facilities on their own dime. Since 2000, Amazon has received a staggering $84 million in subsidies from Illinois taxpayers, making the state one of the top Amazon subsidizers. In fact, five of the nine Amazon facilities in Illinois were built with economic incentives from taxpayers. This is money that could be used to invest in greater education funding, infrastructure renewal or expanded healthcare services.

The ugly truth is there is no silver lining to the HQ2 process, but this should be a wake-up call to Chicago lawmakers: Corporate kowtowing is a losing game. They must release the bid and promise residents that this mistake will never be repeated.

Robert B. Engel is chief spokesperson of the Free & Fair Markets Initiative, a nonprofit coalition focused on supporting a modern, fair marketplace.