Mr. Jay Moreno has challenged our OPINION about the harm possible from providing a Freeport Tax Exemption for the inventory of companies occupying new warehouses built to deliver goods sold on-line and by other remote means.
He challenges our opinion that it will be likely be harmful to local Camden businesses.
The Facts:
Evidence shows that so-called “mail-order/on-line” purchases reduce the sales for local sellers who stock equivalent items. Some local businesses will not survive.
Evidence shows that Freeport Exemptions lower the operating costs for the “mail-order/on-line” companies but not for their competitors.
Evidence shows that tax incentives like the Freeport Exemption are dwarfed by labor, transport and utility costs. Corporations play states, counties, and cities against each other to win hefty taxpayer subsidies, but rarely are those incentives what determines where a corporation locates. But they will take it if we offer it.
The question for Camden1st and Camden County voters is:
Do the warehouse jobs justify harming small local business? Oops, keep in mind that Walmart is both a big-box retailer, and if they built a warehouse here for their “on-line” sales, they will gain another advantage. In fact, all local businesses, including pharmacies, auto parts, toys, blue jeans, and cosmetics already compete with “mail-order/on-line and some will be even further disadvantaged if the Freeport Exemption is created. Any local business could be affected.
When we are talking about competition between local stores (auto parts for instance) that’s a different kind of competition. The playing field is equal for similar stores. All pay prevailing taxes and utility rates. All compete for the same workers who most often are chosen because they are somewhat or significantly skilled at what they are selling. And local businesses compete for workers at the prevailing market wages. It's a level playing field.
“Mail-order” has a lot packers and shelvers. As recent news from Amazon, Wayfair, Chewy and others report, machines that can work 24/7 and don’t need health benefits are replacing thousands of workers. Front office jobs are centralized in regional and headquarter offices, not in remote outposts like Camden County. There will be no Buyers, Accounts Payable, or Advertising executives for Camden’s warehouses.
And about the “jobs”. How many would be hired? Corporate Incentives formerly required new job creation performance targets guaranteed by contract. Companies that missed the target, missed the incentive. The Freeport Exemption is guaranteed no matter how few jobs are created. And while Mr. Moreno uses Amazon as his example of a successful company that might occupy a Camden County warehouse, that event is very highly unlikely. In fact, in the past two years, Amazon has Canceled, Closed, or Delayed 99 facilities totaling almost 33 million square feet:
Then there is the problem that the location of jobs is not necessarily in the same county as where the workers live. Paychecks go home. That’s where mortgages are paid and groceries are bought. Already, ‘home’ for hundreds working in Camden County is in Nassau, Duval, Charlton, and Glynn counties. That’s easily provable by the I-95 hourly traffic counts. There's no Camden gain for those jobs.
But some Camden County-based residents work at the Jacksonville Amazon warehouses. That’s a win for us because their paychecks are mostly spent here.
Hourly Traffic Count Exit 1
To Kings Bay From Kings Bay
Competition for those warehouse jobs will increase the cost of operations for competing Camden businesses. Some of those businesses will not survive. Plus, anyone reading the news knows that Amazon, Wayfair, Chewy and the rest of such “mail-order/online” sellers, are working hard to eliminate every job that can be automated. Collectively, they laid off tens of thousands of workers in all categories last year. This video shows how mail-order/on-line” sellers are eliminating human workers.
Along with the fewer than promised jobs, will come hundreds of tractor-trailer trucks plying Camden County-owned roads that were not built for such loads. That wear and tear falls generally on taxpayers. Perhaps you are not very familiar with the I-95 Southbound Entry ramp which is dangerous for all drivers, but especially for those warehouse tractor-trailers. Won’t taxpayers be the ones who pay to improve that ramp, hopefully before the second or third fatality?
We do have to admit that the warehouse buildings should increase the property taxes received by the County. But you probably have noticed that the county knows how to spend every dollar they take form us. A true Constitutional Conservative like yourself ought to believe that we should be starving government so that it only has exactly enough funding to perform the services it alone can provide.
Surely, the spaceport was one bad “investment” and now they are taking a $3 million grant to expand the county landfill so they can continue to take in garbage and debris from counties all around us, even from Florida. And we hear that the PSA will be open 24 hours a day so it can compete with those gyms that are already open 24 hours a day. Are those things what Camden County expects our government to do?
Sorry, Mr. Moreno, the Freeport Exemption is not “free” no matter how much hype its promoters give it. Our vote remains "NO."
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