Amazon isn't taking money from the government. They're getting a relief of $3 billion IF they fulfill their promise. I'd take 25k-40k jobs for my people over $3 billion in taxes any day. As the director quoted the governor, the best social program is still a job.
Many companies in New York create jobs for the state. Some even more than Amazon, and generate even greater amounts tax revenue.
Are they too entitled to tax relief?
Amazon is a tremendously successful company. You start handing it tax breaks and you begin walking down the path of making it a government-sanctioned monopoly.
This is what detractors of the deal keep saying. You can speculate on the organic growth rate of the NY economy all you want. But at the end of the day, there are 25,000 - 40,000 jobs which definitely won’t be coming to Long Island City now.
The land is still there. Other companies could use it. Unless everything Amazon might have purchased goes totally undeveloped, the impact is less than the 25k jobs.
And given the time horizons involved, I'd take that bet.
The letter says the next biggest company deal with jobs was 1,000 people. So no, there aren’t many other compnies bringing 25k jobs. Especially ones with average incomes of $150,000.
