If they start handing out billions for corporate HQs it won't stop with Amazon. Google and everybody else will like up for theirs too.
Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
51–60 of 227 posts
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#52> "The RWDSU Union was interested in organizing the Whole Foods grocery store workers. [...]. Organizing Amazon, or Whole Foods workers, or any company for that matter, is better pursued by allowing them to locate here and then making an effort to unionize the workers, rather than making unionization a bar to entrance."
I'm not familiar with how this works in New York. Someone who's registering a company needs to negotiate in advance whether the people they hire are part of some pre-existing union or not?
Wouldn't Amazon just have started hiring workers, and if those workers decided to organize into a union or join an existing one they'd have had to deal with that then? It seems not, so how does this work?
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#54Just as a business can grow organically and through capital acquisitions, a city can grow organically or through capital investment.
A city can spend money (billions) on infrastructure and public spaces which serves the workers of the companies, and the campuses of those companies. A city can also ask companies to spend billions to help build out those spaces and that infrastructure and in return offer tax incentives. It works out exactly the same. Both subsidies serve the workers and the companies paying those workers in the same fashion.
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad they dropped it. There are some grounded concerns: * Amazon is one of the most successful enterprises in human history and should not require support from taxpayers beyond their voluntary patronage of Amazon itself. * Most of these "deals" were put together secretly without input from the public. Millions (or in NY's case, billion+) of dollars were packaged and presented without community input or oversight…
Would the bulk of the taxes paid by Amazon be paid back? The article said that Amazon would get $3 billion in existing credits (i.e. not deal specific, just business tax credits) and would be paying ~$27 billion. Seems like a steal for NY.
Look at this beyond the scope of Amazon.
If the basic premise here is that any company should get a tax break if they are capable of hiring enough workers whose tax payments would exceed their employer's tax payments, all you're doing is just shifting the tax burden onto the workers in the form of regressive income, sales, and property taxes.
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
In this case, yes. $2.5 billion of the $3 billion amazon was getting were credits open to any company.
The letter addresses this, they're "as of right" credits open to all.
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
If google creates jobs in long island city, they would get the same handout though. Any company locating there does: it's a program NY state and NYC made to encourage development outside of Manhattan.
> If google creates jobs in long island city, they would get the same handout though. Nops [1][2]. [1] http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/google-to-invest-usd1... [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-plans-large-new-york-cit...
Your first link references Google buying a building in Manhattan, which is not Long Island City, and so that doesn't apply.
Not sure about your second link because it's behind a paywall.
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Empire State Development was to award Amazon a cash grant of $325 million from taxpayers. This is corporate welfare and a kind of corruption. Congress should ban all government subsidies that are one-off and negotiated in secret with individual companies. There's an equal protection under the law issue.
As an attorney, I’m curious as to how you think a constitutional equal protection issue is at stake here. I’m unaware of any case law that would suggest so.
I'm curious why Congress has chosen not to regulate (or ban) the grant of tax incentives to companies as enticements for development; this seems to easily fall under the interstate commerce clause. All states lose out when they compete against each other in this way.
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
If google creates jobs in long island city, they would get the same handout though. Any company locating there does: it's a program NY state and NYC made to encourage development outside of Manhattan.
> If google creates jobs in long island city, they would get the same handout though. Nops [1][2]. [1] http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/google-to-invest-usd1... [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-plans-large-new-york-cit...
You didn't read your articles very well. Google is investing in new york. The tax credits were for companies in a specific part of new york, in this case long island city.
Google is not in long island city or in an area eligible for these particular credits.
Re: Open Letter from New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
#60Oh no, New York is crippled from this! They'll never get on the map as a major city now!