Well at least you got self aware at the end. But you still buried the lead. You meant for this article to read:

"WA still populated by d-bag fauxgressives. Amazon showing some moral backbone by leaving."

By not having a state income tax Washington is already giving 100% of what it could have collected back to Amazon. You need to tell your state to change, and honestly it's Washington NOT FRESNO or anywhere else that takes the cake.

You don't see how Washington's regressive tax system could have directly motivated Chicago's offer? Chicago is offering them exactly what Washington already shells out.

New Jersey is on sound financial footing with it's offer, FYI. A while back we calculated the present value of the State income tax revenue from Amazon jobs to be easily near $20B. Ignoring all other externalizes, like sales taxes, property taxes, spending, and the fact that Amazon's workers will probably be net contributors too all public services, New Jersey's position is obvious.

But Fresno, let's do that. Fresno won't win HQ2. It makes no sense for Amazon to move to Fresno. They already have Bay Area offices, and offers from Oakland and San Jose. It's would be a serious bitch to try and recruit talent to work from Fresno. I've been a tech recruiter, and I've tried. GIven there low odds of success, it makes sense for Fresno offer a moonshot bid like this.

Fresno is the poorest big town in CA (a state with an income tax and a legitimate claim to being cash strapped). Better to give Amazon a say in how 85% of the money is spent than have no money to spend at all. If Amazon moved to Fresno (or Stockton, or Modesto) they would literally save a region on life support.

Not to mention, Fresno and the entire valley would get some benefit from additional state funding. Fueled by state income taxes paid by Amazon's 50,000 workers. That's more than $20B (CA has higher taxes than NJ) in present value terms.

Plus, no doubt they figure that Amazon's priorities are good for the region. Amazon probably will want public transit upgrades. They probably will want better rail service to San Jose. They will probably want more green parks. All of these things are desperately needed in the valley.

Plus, Amazon's employees might move into Devin Nunez's district and vote his ass out.

And frankly, because of NJ and CA's progressive income taxes, low income people in the New Jersey or Fresno would fair better from HQ2 than the low income people you all tax to death in Washington. You could almost call getting Amazon out of Washington is a social justice imperative.