NY taxpayers to pay $48,000 per Amazon HQ job

[DKW 86 7,437]

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NY taxpayers to pay $48,000 per Amazon HQ job

New York state is kicking in more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer-funded incentives for getting half of Amazon's second headquarters located in a section of Queens.

The Seattle-based company made its long-awaited announcement Tuesday, saying Long Island City and Alexandria, Virginia, will each get 25,000 jobs. The online retailer also said it will open an operations hub in Nashville, creating 5,000 jobs.

Amazon will also receive as-yet unspecified incentives from New York City.

New York state's incentives are nearly triple those of Virginia's, while Tennessee's are $102 million.

According to Amazon, the cost per job for New York taxpayers is $48,000, compared to $22,000 for Virginia and $13,000 for Tennessee.

In a statement released by Amazon, Cuomo called the agreement "one of the largest, most competitive economic development investments in U.S. history."

New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson issued a statement saying:  "Amazon is one of the richest companies in the world...I also don’t understand why a company as rich as Amazon would need nearly $2 billion in public money for its expansion plans at a time when New York desperately needs money for affordable housing, transportation, infrastructure and education." 

 

Excuse the local Fox affiliate sourcing. 
The State of Alabama does bids similar to this all the time.
Alabama Incentives for Toyota-Mazda Factory Top $700 Million

Personally, I think winning the bid for Amazon would be great at the NY Prices. 25 Years from now as they take in taxes from employees and satellite businesses all this should be long forgotten.

Comments?

[AU64 10,122]

1 hour ago, DKW 86 said:

 

Excuse the local Fox affiliate sourcing. 
The State of Alabama does bids similar to this all the time.
Alabama Incentives for Toyota-Mazda Factory Top $700 Million

Personally, I think winning the bid for Amazon would be great at the NY Prices. 25 Years from now as they take in taxes from employees and satellite businesses all this should be long forgotten.

Comments?

Agree...it's competitive and can't blame a state for looking at the long term. 

And at NY tax rates, they will get the money back quicker from Amazon employees than would most other states with lower tax rates....thus NY can probably make a bigger up front offer to Amazon. knowing the employees will be paying it back....smart deal IMO.     

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

It definitely works out in the long term, but if you haven't been to NYC lately, specifically Long Island City, there are some major short term issues to take care of where this money would help.  I do business in LIC, so will speak from what I've seen and been told by locals.  Subway system needs some work and LIC is growing very quickly without Amazon.  This will simply add fuel to that fire.  The amount of extra trains that will be needed for that area and places like Williamsburg/Brooklyn (housing) will be numerous, and traffic going in and out of LIC is already atrocious.  Closest airport is LaGuardia, but there's no real easy way to get there like there is with JFK or even Newark.  Certainly going to cause some headaches in the short run for the area.