A prolonged state budget crisis that has led to public employee layoffs and the planned closing of government offices statewide hasn’t kept Illinois from extending a package of corporate tax breaks to the nation’s most valuable retailer.
First-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner put a hold on the corporate recruitment tool in early June amid a budget impasse that has stretched more than two months into the fiscal year.
But the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity says that online retail giant Amazon.com Inc.—with a market value of nearly $250 billion—received the tax credits because of a previous commitment, with the state notifying the company of the award in late May.
Amazon says its new Joliet warehouse, its first in Illinois, will create 1,000 full-time jobs.
