NY Taxpayers to pay $48k per Amazon HQ Job

[1bad65]

Most companies get similar deals. Local and state governments offer all kinds of incentives, such as no taxes for 5 or 10 years. Companies go to different cities and states and start a bidding war. A race to the bottom. The city might end up paying to have so many jobs for so long. Because as soon as their deal is over and they are required to pay regular taxes, there is nothing to stop the company from up and moving again.

I don't know about most companies getting similar deals, as this only happens with big corporations, not the small businesses that make up a majority of our businesses.

But that aside, you do make some great points and observations.

I typically disagree with giving away tax-payer dollars on principle, as well as not giving everyone equal protection under the law (in this case tax law).

That said, on a practical level I feel it can be used to kickstart job creators moving to a city, but once you have a burgeoning local economy with low unemployment, the practice must stop as it is obviously no longer needed.

A saw Austin do this with high tech. They kept getting played for fools. Companies knew they wanted to come here, but they knew they could bluff the City (because the Council had few if any members with actual business experience/knowledge) by saying they were only "considering" Austin but they may expand elsewhere.

It played out the same way every time, the City would give the company an "incentive package" worth millions and millions, and the company came here as they, and everyone but the City Council, knew they were all along.

Over and over again.

Now you touched on the companies being able to leave when the terms of the deal/package expire. This is true. However with all the incentive packages I saw Austin give over the years, I cant name one company who moved after their specific deal ended.

[WarVeteranO01]

If Amazon is so great for a city in terms of bringing jobs and improving the local economy, why is Seattle one of the worst cities in the US for homelessness?

Likely the laxed drug laws. This is the major reason why Ca has a major homeless problem. Ca passed a law releasing non-violent drug offenders and Ca also pushes for "drug courts" that offer no proven solution. Our streets are full of hypes and tweakers not people down and out on luck. The state of washington passed similar laws years ago, the whole state of Ca will be in the same boat in a few years if we dont start putting these people somewhere.

[Mooshashi]

Ive always been curious about NY. Like Los Angeles and Orange County in Southern Ca it seems like NY is ridiculously expensive for the average income to live in, but are there suburbs where people can commute 30-50 miles to work daily?

I live 32miles inland from my job and vanpool into work at the crack of dawn. Living inland I am able to afford a home and small luxuries I could never afford in LA or OC, I just have to put up with traffic.

Same in NYC. You can live in New Jersey, or up in Westchester County, or even southern Connecticut but you will have to deal with either driving or taking a train. I don't know about NJ but house prices in Westchester or CT are very high; of course if you're coming from California it might not seem so bad, but any other place is way less.

The subway system is in dire need of repairs, the road are bad, the TOLLS are even worse.

[BM dnobagaV]

Shut up Capitalism was invented by Jesus.

[GhostofDempsey]

Ive always been curious about NY. Like Los Angeles and Orange County in Southern Ca it seems like NY is ridiculously expensive for the average income to live in, but are there suburbs where people can commute 30-50 miles to work daily?

I live 32miles inland from my job and vanpool into work at the crack of dawn. Living inland I am able to afford a home and small luxuries I could never afford in LA or OC, I just have to put up with traffic.

People commute to NYC from Long Island suburbs (as far away as 70 or more miles, New Jersey, and CT. They claim population of NYC is only 8 million, but on any given day I swear there is between 10-12 million between residents, workers and tourists. NYC also has a separate income tax that residents get hit with in addition to state taxes.

[GhostofDempsey]

Article in online Fox News: Tucker Carlson says Ocasio-Cortes has a point about the Amazon deal . Says why not put the HQ in an area like Detroit that needs jobs.He put a right vs left spin on it which is not surprising.

Carlson is a talking head, not a business person (neither is Ocasio of course). Amazon needs 25,000 workers almost immediately plus a good higher education system to create the pool of tech savvy employees in the pipeline. Detroit has neither.

The lack of a good to great education system was the main reason Dallas lost out.

Detroit was an example of how not providing tax incentives caused an entire city to go under. Michael Moore rallied against corporate tax cuts, yet look at Detroit and Flint now. Those big auto companies moved their plants down south and got better deals in other states. There went the jobs. It's a delicate system of give and take and each city has to decide whether or not the benefits outweigh the cost of doing business with these corporations.

[Mooshashi]

Detroit was an example of how not providing tax incentives caused an entire city to go under. Michael Moore rallied against corporate tax cuts, yet look at Detroit and Flint now. Those big auto companies moved their plants down south and got better deals in other states. There went the jobs. It's a delicate system of give and take and each city has to decide whether or not the benefits outweigh the cost of doing business with these corporations.

It wasn't white flight to the suburbs, and consequent loss of their tax base, that helped doom Detroit? Just not handing out tax incentives? It's hard to give tax incentives a chance when there's nobody around.

NOW would be the time to promise tax relief, but no sane person would move to Michigan when they can get good jobs in much warmer weather, or to a healthier economy. Although land is cheap up in Detroit...i suppose if you were a pioneering type you could do ok.

[GhostofDempsey]

It wasn't white flight to the suburbs, and consequent loss of their tax base, that helped doom Detroit? Just not handing out tax incentives? It's hard to give tax incentives a chance when there's nobody around.

NOW would be the time to promise tax relief, but no sane person would move to Michigan when they can get good jobs in much warmer weather, or to a healthier economy. Although land is cheap up in Detroit...i suppose if you were a pioneering type you could do ok.

There were a lot of blacks who filled those auto industry jobs. White flight was another by-product of failed Democratic leadership.

I believe China is investing in the Detroit area. Wouldn't surprise me if it bounces back, of course not to it's former glory, but just enough to breath a little life back into the city.