Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday signed an incentives bill for Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters, the final step in sealing a $750 million deal to bring the e-commerce giant to Arlington.
Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg, who chairs the state’s Major Employment and Investment Commission, told me Tuesday afternoon that Northam signed the bill into law in his office.
A champion for the HQ2 project, Northam signed the bill in private after a scandal over a racist photo in the Democrat’s 1984 medical school yearbook erupted Friday, three months after Amazon selected Arlington for the 25,000-job project.
“Rather than having a formal public ceremony, he just did it in private like he does other legislation,” Ruff said. “He might have a ceremonial one, but it is law now.”