Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

WILKES-BARRE — U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser on Thursday said the 9th Congressional District he represents would be the ideal place to locate Amazon’s HQ2 complex.

Meuser, R-Dallas, has written Jeffrey Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon, to encourage him to locate the company’s HQ2 headquarters in his district, which covers a chunk of Luzerne County.

Meuser’s letter comes in the wake of Amazon’s recent decision to cancel plans to locate its planned new headquarters in New York City.

“Our communities offer a strategic and ideal location for the world’s fastest growing company,” Meuser wrote. “A two-hour drive from New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District — comprised of all or parts of Schuylkill, Northumberland, Montour, Luzerne, Lebanon, Columbia, Carbon and Berks Counties — is situated along the U.S.’s eastern seaboard, part of a region that includes more than 50 million people and generates a fifth of America’s gross domestic product. There is literally 60 percent of North America’s population within a ten hour drive.”

Meuser went on to write that his district is home to a skilled and motivated workforce, and responsible, pro-job governance — all of which he says fit Amazon’s stated parameters for its new facility.

”The backbone of Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District is an educated, hard-working, and world-class workforce,” Meuser said. “Our residents take pride in their work and are committed to doing a job well. Amazon would be fortunate to include more of our residents among its ranks.”

Meuser said if Amazon were to invest and create jobs in Pennsylvania’s 9th, it would be creating a renaissance of new opportunities for a former coal-rich area that needs a great American business, like Amazon, to give thousands of families and job seekers the chance at the American dream.

“I appreciate your consideration of this request, and welcome the opportunity to coordinate a walk-through of our communities with local and state officials,” Meuser said.

In the letter, Meuser noted the Amazon HQ2 plan calls for the creation of 25,000 new jobs and construction of a $2.5 billion headquarters.

Meuser said Pennsylvania could offer Amazon an affordable and common-sense environment to do business.

“Thanks to low energy costs, minimal red-tape, effective community revitalization efforts and forward-thinking community leaders, our area would welcome the presence of a new, responsible employer committed to strengthening local economies,” Meuser wrote.

He also said he can attest to the strength this area from his own personal experience.

”Not only did I choose to raise my family and help build an international manufacturing business in and around these very communities, but as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Revenue, I worked to help create the right opportunity with performance based tax credits for Shell Energy to invest in an ethylene cracker plant in Pennsylvania,” Meuser wrote. “This was, and is, the largest private investment made in Pennsylvania, and it is currently under construction in western Pennsylvania.”

Amazon recently pulled out of a deal that would’ve had the Seattle-based company redevelop a Long Island City site in exchange for $3 billion in state and New York City incentives. Influential Democrats in Albany and the city opposed the deal, according to the Associated Press.

Bezos
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Jeff-Bezos-1.jpg.optimal.jpgBezos

Meuser
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_TTL101618Meuser2-7.jpg.optimal.jpgMeuser

By Bill O’Boyle

[email protected]

Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.