After seeing how much St. Louis County spent with Amazon in 2018, the County Board is considering an Amazon ban of sorts in order to force local spending.

DuluthNewsTribune.com is reporting that the potential mandate was triggered by Commissioner Keith Nelson who sent an e-mail to employees after seeing spending figures:

The county spent $147,000 on Amazon purchases in 2018. The figure is at the core of the current debate. After learning the figure earlier this summer, Nelson sent an irate, self-censored email in June to all county employees, condemning Amazon purchasing. The email read: “My question is simple why in the **** are we using Amazon. If people are having difficulty finding things locally, please contact my office. I would be happy to get our area chambers involved, they pay taxes here. Commissioner Nelson.”

While $147,000 looks like a big number, it really only accounted for 0.05 percent of St. Louis County's $271 million reported operating expenses.  So, is this an overreaction and/or a government overreach?

The resolution to buy local and stay away from Amazon will be voted on in the near future.

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