Amazon received $3 million in subsidies, tax breaks, and grants from a Rhode Island community.
Advocacy group Good Jobs First, which opposes such subsidies, found Rhode Island provided the 37th-highest amount of grants and breaks among U.S. states to the nearly $1-trillion company.
Rhode Island is ranked behind New Mexico (1 project/$5 million), Arizona (2 projects/$5 million), and Nevada (5 projects/$3 million) and ahead of Maine (11 projects/$578,828).
The subsidy was granted by the Johnson local government, which offered $3 million to Amazon in a 20-year tax abatement, plus $2,700,000 from the State for road work.
There were no developments which received undisclosed subsidy amounts.
Rhode Island once lost $20 million by passing legislation to lower a company’s corporate income tax rate.
The state is considered to have modest subsidy programs, but does publish annual reports on subsidies provided.
As of Nov. 17, 2022, Amazon had received 310 separate tax break deals from local and state governments across the U.S., totaling $5.14 billion. The state of Virginia was home to the largest portion of these taxpayer-subsidized Amazon projects.
| State | # Projects | Total Subsidy |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | 20 | $824,291,799 |
| Illinois | 16 | $732,973,199 |
| New York | 22 | $671,446,986 |
| Washington | 10 | $608,644,670 |
| Oregon | 32 | $483,459,645 |
| Texas | 13 | $305,959,751 |
| Ohio | 14 | $172,418,555 |
| Tennessee | 20 | $166,030,438 |
| Kentucky | 21 | $111,789,976 |
| Missouri | 2 | $110,600,000 |
| Massachusetts | 5 | $86,979,275 |
| California | 12 | $84,541,000 |
| Michigan | 5 | $82,352,146 |
| Maryland | 3 | $68,425,000 |
| South Carolina | 5 | $64,297,962 |
| Indiana | 15 | $60,389,500 |
| Alabama | 2 | $56,500,000 |
| Wisconsin | 6 | $54,135,500 |
| Louisiana | 7 | $48,967,587 |
| New Jersey | 3 | $45,422,240 |
| Florida | 13 | $43,239,475 |
| Connecticut | 3 | $37,700,000 |
| North Carolina | 5 | $31,186,975 |
| Pennsylvania | 4 | $29,557,871 |
| Georgia | 5 | $27,115,929 |
| Mississippi | 3 | $23,925,795 |
| Iowa | 2 | $22,400,000 |
| Kansas | 2 | $21,802,522 |
| Colorado | 9 | $15,779,091 |
| Oklahoma | 5 | $11,207,651 |
| Utah | 3 | $9,780,226 |
| Delaware | 2 | $7,972,500 |
| Minnesota | 1 | $5,700,000 |
| New Mexico | 1 | $5,244,071 |
| Arizona | 2 | $5,139,671 |
| Nevada | 5 | $3,251,324 |
| Rhode Island | 1 | $2,700,000 |
| Maine | 11 | $578,828 |
