Rhode Island
Tax Treaty Now, Buyer’s Remorse Later: Johnston Gave Amazon a 20-Year Deal—Now Its Rescue Trucks Are a ‘Medical Uber’
What happened
On Tuesday, Oct. 6, the Boston Globe published an exclusive interview with Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena and Fire Chief Keith A. Calci about the town’s 3.8-million-square-foot Amazon robotics fulfillment center on Hartford Avenue. More than a year after a July 2025 ribbon-cutting that the mayor called “a proud day for Johnston,” the two officials said Amazon has failed to follow basic fire safety practices, has used town rescue trucks as a “medical Uber,” and has brushed off requests for extra firefighting equipment.
The numbers: according to Johnston records, firefighters responded to the facility about 200 times from its opening through Sept. 26, roughly four times a week. About 160 of those calls were for some kind of medical help. Calci said rescue crews hear from workers that they can’t call in sick without risking their jobs, so they come in sick and then call 911. For comparison, the Globe reported that North Andover, Mass., whose Amazon warehouse is the same size, has had 71 calls this year, and North Haven, Conn., has had 68 in the past year. Both average fewer than two a week.
The fire: in July, a conveyor belt caught fire on the second floor. Calci said no one pulled the alarm, about 850 workers crowded the front entrance instead of using the building’s 55 emergency exits, and Amazon managers wanted to “check with corporate” before cutting power to the area. The State Fire Marshal found the fire was accidental, caused by debris jammed under a running belt, and confirmed problems with the company’s fire safety practices. Calci said Amazon still hasn’t placed the hoses and air tanks he has asked for along the building’s quarter-mile length. Amazon and town fire officials were set to meet Tuesday.
The deal behind it: in September 2021, the Johnston Town Council approved a 20-year tax stabilization agreement that caps what Amazon pays in property taxes. PBN reported at the time that payments would rise from about $5.7 million to $9.11 million a year, about $145.6 million in total, and the council approved a separate community partnership agreement alongside it. The Globe puts the average at $7.2 million a year and reports that Amazon also committed $5.3 million to add four firefighters at a nearby station.
Original reporting
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Virtue Forge commentary
Rhode Island towns love a ribbon-cutting. The way they usually get one is a custom tax treaty for one big company, negotiated in public meetings few residents watch and announced as a win. Johnston’s is now five years old, and the same town hall that celebrated it is in the Globe saying the company won’t return its calls.
The lesson isn’t that Amazon is a villain or that warehouses are bad. A $400 million building and more than 1,500 jobs are real. The lesson is that when government trades in special deals instead of equal rules, it gives away its leverage up front. The tax break was locked in for 20 years in 2021. The fire chief’s list of requests came after the doors opened, and it isn’t in the code, so the town is left asking politely and complaining to reporters.
A better model is boring and fair: one tax rate for everyone, one fire code for everyone, and if a building of a certain size needs standpipes and air tanks every few hundred feet, write that into the code so every builder knows the cost before breaking ground. Then nobody has to beg, and nobody gets a special deal. Before the next Rhode Island town signs a 20-year treaty with a trillion-dollar company, residents should ask what happens when the company says no.