“We’ve long been impressed by Amazon and its bold view of the future,” they wrote. “Given this, it’s hard to imagine that a forward-thinking company like Amazon hasn’t already selected its preferred location. And, if that’s the case, then this public process is, intentionally or not, creating a bidding war between amongst states and cities. Sure, we have a competitive toolkit of incentives, but blindly giving away the farm isn’t our style.
And, San Antonio also told the RNC “No, thanks,” when asked to host the 2020 convention.
That’s misleading. There’s a record number of delinquencies because there’s a record number of auto loans. Kevin Drum has an analysis. Delinquencies as a percentage of all auto loans hit a high in 2011, dipped, and started back up in 2018. They still are a bit below their 2011 high of 5%.
The concern about $3B in tax incentives sounds more than reasonable to me. Pols are always selling out their constituents in these sorts of deals. Nice to see some speaking out against one for a change.
A gain of maybe 25K jobs (at most) versus taxpayers footing $3B of Amazon’s taxes sounds like a no-brainer. Buh-bye Amazon!
With an eye toward the 2020 election, I don’t like the additional ammunition being give to Repubs — “liberals hate jobs” — regardless of the particulars of the cost-benefit, that reinforces their theme already being built on the Green New Deal. And these were good-paying jobs, not an Amazon distribution center.
I hate it when educated, skilled people come into a neighborhood. They purchase and fix up a bunch of properties, attend to a long list of deferred maintenance, which raises property values. They generally elevate the look, feel and quality of everything around them, which ultimately leads to many local residents getting priced out of housing and having to move.
Entropy, rot, decay, disuse and stagnation should not be denied their proper roles in the world.
But hey, maybe the world is starting to develop some sense, and letting businesses operate tax-free for the always-undelivered promised jobs is coming to an end.
I am not defending the Amazon giveaway on any level. But at the same time I don’t thinking you could blame Amazon for higher rents in NYC. That’s a problem the city/state need to solve.
I’m not so sure it was “the community” pushing back, but instead local politicians, refusing to actually study the possible benefits of the deal but rather using Amazon as red meat for the public.
“What don’t we want?” JOBS!
“When don’t we want them?” NOW!
2.5 billion in construction costs gone? That doesn’t sound good. Let my fellow Dems rejoice, no new higher taxpayers for NYC! I found this article interesting…
Good. I’m glad NYC is out. For me it is a kind of, “if you build it, they will come” Bezos could get great tax breaks else where and have Kevin Costner star in it…
the on coming recession due to corporate tax giveaways. which corporations are using to buy back their stock and enriching stockholders. its an old story when consumer have no money to buy. when the country is facing the Republican give to the rich give away George Bush did the same thing two scoops is doing. Great Recession here it comes. you don’t need a crystal ball they will sock their money away all the super rich who got the tax cuts. and wait for another day. next time the mother load social security. yep! the deficit needs attending to. the biggest deficit in US History the yah hoos are so dumb
Exactly… much like with sports stadiums the tax breaks usually do not add up. Then again as soon as the facility is built the “owners” are planning the next move. That is holding the community for ransom, “you will lose the _____, if you don’t pony up”. Not worth any amount of tax breaks. If the local is a good fit they will come in anyhow and/or look for another sucker.
I hope people remember that the next time an NFL team is given an ungodly tax break to build a stadium. I’d rather have Amazon and its 25,000 high paying jobs than a stadium and its minimum wage jobs and MASSIVE impact on traffic.
Yawn–more socialism for the rich. More bogus trickle-down.
Republicans are famed for complaining–when elections are near–that the government shouldn’t be involved in “picking winners and losers” in the economy.
The incentives never make sense and it’s not debatable as to how one community benefits. From a Macroeconomic perspective, you are trading one existing job for locating it somewhere else and doing so with Taxpayers’ monies. It does not create any additional jobs; it’s entirely Corporate Welfare. You are subsidizing Amazon’s ability to “compete”.
