re: #357 ObserverArt

This is what NYS/NYC were paying to get Amazon:

To facilitate the necessary rezoning for the project, the state will make use of a General Project Plan (GPP), which was used in recent years to advance the Javits Center expansion, Atlantic Yards, and Moynihan Station. (The GPP includes an environmental review and input from the City Planning Commission and local community board, though they’re nonbinding).

The agreement comes with a number of incentives: Specifically, Amazon will receive $897 million from the city’s Relocation and Employment Assistance Program (REAP) and $386 million from the Industrial & Commercial Abatement Program (ICAP). It will receive an additional $505 million in a capital grant and $1.2 billion in “Excelsior” credits if its job creation goals are met. That brings the total amount of public funds granted to $2.988 billion—in other words, the city and state will pay Amazon $48,000 per job.

Amazon could also earn even more tax breaks separate from the city and state subsidies: The census tract in Long Island City where HQ2 (or HQ3) will be built is designated as an opportunity zone under a provision of the so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the tax overhaul President Trump signed into law almost a year ago.

Opportunity zones, the brainchild of Silicon Valley financier Sean Parker, allow people to invest capital gains—the profit made from the sale of an asset like a house, stock, or even a painting—in “distressed” areas and defer taxes on those gains until 2026.

So, the state was throwing nearly $1.4 billion in incentives at the company, and then another $1.7 billion in credits/incentives if the job creation goals were met (prorated). If they fell short on the jobs, the credits would be proportionally reduced - but that would only happen if the state were rigorous in clawing back if the company fell short, and states routinely ignore the enforcement provisions to the benefit of these companies.

Those in LIC worried about the lack of existing infrastructure, the lack of transit investment, and that it would push out lower wage residents who couldn’t afford to live in one of the few remaining affordable places to live in the City now that Amazon and the high wage workers were going there.

All this said suggests that Amazon might take another look at Newark NJ because they’d still have access to the NYC metro area talent pool, transit is good, and NJ will throw billions at the company. Because that’s what states do, even when the company has a trillion dollar capitalization.