Bosma says Legislature might move on Amazon incentives this session

Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma on Thursday hinted there could be legislative action taken in the next few weeks on Amazon.com incentives, now that the city of Indianapolis has been selected as one of 20 finalists for the tech company to locate its proposed second headquarters.

“I’m not surprised we were selected, and I will also not be surprised if some legislative action has to be taken in order to facilitate some of the incentives that are being discussed right now,” Bosma said. “We’ll work closely with the administration on that and be sure that the IEDC (Indiana Economic Development Corp.) and the governor have all the tools they need to make Indiana as attractive in this regard as possible without giving away the store."

Bosma said there was not a bill addressing the matter at the moment, but “we can move a vehicle bill expeditiously.” He said he would be in touch with the governor’s office.

He also said he would not be in support of doing something akin to what the state of Wisconsin is doing for Foxconn Technology Group to land a massive display panel factory that could employ up to 13,000 people. The cost to the taxpayers of Wisconsin for the new plant is nearing $4.5 billion, according to a report from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, as reported Wednesday in the Wisconsin State Journal.

"It looked like it was extremely expensive and maybe not taxpayer-friendly, so I know our governor is not on that kind of flight path, nor would I support that,” Bosma said of the Foxconn deal.

State and local officials have not commented on what Indiana has offered Amazon to locate HQ2 in central Indiana. The proposed project is expected to cost more than $5 billion and create 50,000 high-paying jobs over the next 10 to 15 years.