The following quote is from an article in theRichmond Times-Dispatch:

"As autumn began, Virginia lawmakers were not completely sold on the deal they had been putting together for a year to land Amazon's second headquarters in the Northern Virginia suburbs.

The lure of a $5 billion investment and 50,000 high-paying jobs was powerful, but so was the fear of having to justify $1 billion in direct state incentives to a company valued at $1 trillion."

what kind of government policy is this and why?