How much is it worth to have Amazon set up shop in Philadelphia?

How about a billion dollars.

That’s right, billion, with a ‘b’.

The deadline for cities to put in a bid was Thursday.

Pennsylvania officials plan to offer Amazon more than $1 billion in tax incentives if the e-commerce giant locates its planned second headquarters campus in the state, the head of the Philadelphia area’s main business group said, writes Jacob Adelman for philly.com.

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Rob Wonderling, president of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, said in an interview Tuesday that the tax breaks would be an extra enticement on top of Pennsylvania’s existing draws. State legislators highlighted Pennsylvania’s educational institutions and high-tech workforce in an online letter to Amazon.com Inc. this month, the story continues.

Wonderling declined to specify in any more detail how much state officials planned to authorize in incentives for Amazon, citing a nondisclosure agreement surrounding his talks with leaders.

Gov. Wolf’s spokesman, J.J. Abbott, said in an email Wednesday that details of any incentive offers would not be made public before Amazon’s Thursday deadline for accepting headquarters site proposals.

“To preserve competitive advantages of these proposals, it would be premature to share while other states are still able to amend their bids,” he said.

Amazon said it plans to employ 50,000 skilled workers at a second headquarters campus — nicknamed HQ2 — outside its native Seattle. The plans call for spending $5 billion to develop millions of square feet of new office space.

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