Mostly, yes. About $2.5 billion of the tax benefits were "as of right", meaning they're available to any company that fulfills certain requirements. There was also a separate Amazon-specific $500 million grant to assist with construction. More details at http://www.gothamgazette.com/state/8110-a-closer-look-at-the...

If that's the case, the media have done a terrible job reporting this.

Shocking, isn't it?

I believe that they've reported it the way that they wanted to. The media knows that outrage sells, and when the public is already suspicious of rich tech companies, there's no reason to accurately report the facts.

Here's a personal anecdote. My mom thought that Amazon was outright being given $3 billion to come to NYC, and said that it was unfair that they were getting the money before they hired anybody. She didn't even know that the tax credits were performance based until I told her.

That site is currently a plastic factory next to a Superfund site and the infamous Queensbridge projects though. It's likely the cit/state would make the same concessions to anyone that could place clean high income jobs in the area.

(I mean the specific HQ site within LIC)

From the media, you expected something else?

For a more general explanation, see my post in this thread at

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19236564