How Maryland can woo Amazon through education

Maryland State Sen. Richard Madaleno is calling for greater investment in education as part of his effort to lure Amazon to Montgomery County, Maryland, a finalist for Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) second headquarters. “Amazon is one of the most profitable companies in the world already,” Madaleno, a Democrat, told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.”

States and cities are offering all kinds of benefits to attract the companies’ new home, which could create up to 50,000 jobs.

Montgomery County is facing competition from a potential site on the border of nearby Fairfax County and Loudoun County in Northern Virginia. Other contenders including New Jersey has put forward tax break incentives.

Mayors from Danbury, Conn., to Frisco, Texas, to Washington D.C., even recruited Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, to create videos aimed at grabbing CEO Jeff Bezos’ attention.

Also in Maryland, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has proposed as much as $5 billion in incentives to the e-commerce company.

Madaleno, who is running for governor, said Amazon is looking to communities that have spent generations investing in public education, infrastructure and public amenities.

“What they need are highly educated workers to work in their facilities in order to drive their productivity in order to make them more profitable, and they need a base of people around the world who can afford to buy their products,” he said.

Jeff Bezos, who succeeded Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) founder Bill Gates as the world’s richest person in October 2017, is now worth $112.6 billion according to Forbes.

Although wage equality has been a platform for Democrats, Madaleno said he is betting on Bezos to “build a strong ecosystem” that invests in workers.