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NYC Papers View Amazon Deal’s Collapse As An Embarrassment


The editorial boards of New York City’s largest newspapers viewed the collapse of a deal to bring a new Amazon headquarters to New York as an embarrassment for the city and a symptom of an increasingly unfriendly political environment for big employers.

A look at their editorials:

The Daily News

So-called progressives just killed 25,000 to 40,000 high-quality jobs coming to New York City.

So-called progressives just shredded plans that would have delivered up to $27.5 billion in New York tax revenue over 25 years — real money that could have gone for schools and subways and public housing and health-care for the needy.

So-called progressives just looked at caterers, construction workers, electricians, cleaners and countless other professionals in Long Island City and throughout the five boroughs desperate to benefit from the economic activity that new employees would bring, and said: Suck it up. Amazon failed our ever-changing litmus tests, so we don’t want them here.

Now one of the world’s biggest and most innovative companies, perfectly poised to play a central role shaping the global economy for a generation, will take its employment opportunities elsewhere.

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The New York Post

Amazon’s decision to drop its New York City expansion plan is a loss for the city and for the company — with lessons for both sides, and for the politicians who brokered the now-failed deal.

New York needs to think about how the local economy is to keep growing, with new middle-class jobs. The “bribe big companies to move in, then demand more concessions” model plainly isn’t going to work.

Amazon, meanwhile, ought to realize that holding a national competition, apparently to see who’d offer the most subsidies, can only guarantee suspicion about whatever deal you wind up getting.

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The New York Times

“You have to be tough to make it in New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio boasted, choosing to jeer at Amazon as it canceled its plans on Thursday to build a new headquarters in Queens, after some local officials angrily criticized its proposal.

What a strange thing for the mayor to take pride in. It’s certainly true that you have to be tough these days. But that’s because the subways don’t work, the streets are gridlocked, the housing is unaffordable, the shelters are overcrowded, and the schools are segregated and often inadequate. Now think how much tougher it’ll become for the typical citizen — not the ones who ride in chauffeured government cars — if New York gets a reputation for the smugness of its politicians and their hostility to business.

There were all sorts of problems with the deal New York cut to bring Amazon to the city, and Amazon is no paragon, but its abrupt withdrawal was a blow to New York, which stood to gain 25,000 jobs and an estimated $27 billion in tax revenue over the next two decades. This embarrassment to the city presents a painful lesson in how bumper-sticker slogans and the hubris of elected — and corporate — officials can create losers on all sides.

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The Wall Street Journal

After getting mauled by a mob of unions and politicians, Amazon on Thursday cancelled plans to build a second headquarters in New York City. It’s a testament to New York’s toxic business environment that even $3 billion in subsidies wasn’t enough to keep the company in town …

Mr. Cuomo blamed hostile state Senate Democrats for driving off Amazon and insisted the state’s “fundamentals” will “continue to attract world class business.” If that’s so, why did New York politicians spend $10 billion last year_more than any other state_on business incentives? Republican states also compete with subsidies, but progressives have to offer more to compensate for their oppressive business climates.

The city has the country’s second-highest income tax, and Mr. de Blasio last month proposed that all private employers be required to provide workers two weeks of paid vacation each year. That’s on top of paid family leave. Animus toward business represses the organic investment and job growth that make a dynamic economy.

(AP)



8 Responses

  1. What a strange thing for the mayor to take pride in. It’s certainly true that you have to be tough these days. But that’s because the subways don’t work, the streets are gridlocked, the housing is unaffordable, the shelters are overcrowded, and the schools are segregated and often inadequate. Now think how much tougher it’ll become

    IF YOU BRING IN 25-50000 NEW PEOPLE TO THE CITY INSTEAD OF PROGRAMS TO HELP THOSE WHO CURRENTLY LIVE HERE
    stupid newspaper can’t even read their own editorials

  2. Big win for AOC! Big win for The People over the bourgeoisie capitalists!!

    Big win!!

    Keep voting socialist, and we can spread these wins all over our country!!

  3. Amazon paid zero federal tax last year on 11 Billion dollars profit and it’s the libs who are crazy ?
    They are only in it for corporate profits and they could not care less about New Yorkers.

  4. Gee, a corporation in it for the profits. Who would have thought. Do you know who would have benefited? All the local restaurants, food stores,suppliers and property owners. Also, the schools that Amazon was going to provide computers and training. Amazon wasn’t bringing in all 25,000 new hires from outside of NY. But, even if they did, they would be paying millions in NY income,property and sales taxes. AOC needs an education in economics. She said now that Amazon pulled out, the $3 billion can be spent on teachers. There is no $3 billion lying around . It represented taxes Amazon wouldn’t have to pay if they met there goals

    I don’t blame Amazon for walking away before sinking money into the ground. Why should they be forced to use union labor, which is generally overpriced and inefficient and be subject to all the insane laws passed by a City Council that has never run a business but enjoys telling others how to

  5. Hopefully, public officials in other cities and states will take a step back and reconsider the efficacy of throwing billions of dollars at these mega corporations to build new facilities with promises of new jobs . This crazy bidding war for jobs has gotten out of control. It may make sense to provide some targeted tax incentives for smaller businesses but not for companies that can easily afford to pay their own way. The best analogy is the billions of dollars wasted on tax incentives that many cities offered to build new downtown sports stadiums for pro teams that demanded new taxpayer funded gold-plated projects or they would simply move the teams elsewhere.

  6. So, now that AOC “saved” all these billions of dollars from “going” to Amazon, perhaps she would like to distribute some of it to her constituents?

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