Pass a Tax, Lose a Huge Business

South Carolina chose poorly:

Amazon all but told South Carolina goodbye Wednesday after the online retailer lost a legislative showdown on a sales tax collection exemption it wants to open a distribution center that would bring 1,249 jobs to the Midlands.

Company officials immediately halted plans to equip and staff the one million-square-foot building under construction at I-77 and 12th Street near Cayce.

“As a result of today’s unfortunate House vote, we’ve canceled $52 million in procurement contracts and removed all South Carolina fulfillment center job postings from our (Web) site,” said Paul Misener, Amazon vice president for global public policy.

The decision came shortly after state representatives rejected the tax break 71-47.
“People who think this is a bluff don’t know Amazon,” Lexington County Councilman Bill Banning said. “Too many other states want them.”

The partly finished center probably will be completed and then “put into mothballs,” he said.

Sure glad they have a surplus of jobs in South Carolina. It would be a real shame if their unemployment rate was something like 9.6%.

Oh wait...it is.

This is yet another of those unfortunate examples of legislatures who think their taxes and regulations can be made in a vacuum and won't cause businesses to make fundamental changes in how they operate.