Amazon.com plans to open a warehouse and distribution center in southern Indiana for what will be its fifth large facility in the state. Amazon announced Tuesday it would spend about $150 million on the center in Jeffersonville and that it could have more than 1,000 employees there by 2015.Katelyn Hancock with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation says the company is getting a performance-based incentives package."The IEDC offered Amazon up to $2 million in conditional tax credits and up to $300,000 in training grants. And then we also, in conjunction with the Indiana Department of Transportation, will allocate funds to improve Cox Road," she said. Cox Road is in the River Ridge Commerce Center, where construction of the facility is underway. Amazon's announcement follows a deal it made with Gov. Mitch Daniels in January to begin collecting Indiana's 7 percent sales tax from customers in the state in 2014. Many Indiana retailers objected to the deal, saying it put them at a price disadvantage. Amazon currently has similar facilities in Indianapolis and the suburban communities of Whitestown and Plainfield. It also has several centers in Kentucky.(Information for this story also came from the Associated Press)
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.