I feel like this is nothing new. Every few years, some major sportsball team threatens to leave their city unless the taxpayers fork over mega-billions for a new stadium. Despite any measurable economic benefits to having a stadium, the cities fall for it every time. It's the same thing, right? Amazon says "give us free electricity and we'll make jobs", and the politicians buy it even though it's very unlikely to be true.

Maybe someday we'll get an itemized tax bill, so you can see that you paid $4.12 for Amazon's electricity and $1.23 for a new sports arena, and can vote for someone else if that upsets you. Now that I think about it, that will never happen. And so, the cycle continues.