Amazon and corporate welfare. Protesters are heading to the site of Amazon’s future office complex in Long Island City, New York, today to condemn the city and state governments for showering Amazon with massive tax breaks and other giveaways in order to entice the company to expand into the city. On Tuesday, Amazon officially announced it would split its so-called second headquarters between New York and Arlington, Virginia, just across the river from Washington, D.C., after being offered more than $3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives. As part of the deal, New York taxpayers will even build a helipad for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is the richest man in the world. Amazon recently became the world’s second U.S. company to be valued at over $1 trillion, thanks in part to the fact that the company paid no federal taxes in 2017. Amazon also built its company in part by not collecting local sales taxes on goods sold online.
Ron Kim talking:
I am absolutely outraged that New York, under Governor Cuomo, is willing to give away up to $3 billion of taxpayers’ money without any consultation. This isn’t my money; this isn’t your—this is the people’s money, that he’s willing to just give it away to the richest man on the planet, when we are literally sleepwalking into a supernova, catastrophic financial meltdown, after 10 years from the last financial meltdown.
More people are living in debt than ever in the history of humankind as we speak right now. In New York alone, New Yorkers, we have over 1 million New Yorkers living in student debt—living with student debt, unable to pay the minimum amount, barely getting by. But instead of bailing out the people here in New York, our own Democratic governor is willing to give—transfer wealth out of New York and give it directly to the pockets of the richest man on the planet? That is ridiculous, and it’s about time we step up, as Democrats and as progressives, and really put an end to corporate welfare.
I’m introducing legislation to call back this deal, under the New York state Constitution—actually clearly states that we’re not allowed to give any corporate subsidies or money to the private sector or business or corporation. They’re getting around it by working with quasi-government agencies, that was designed, for the last 60 years, to execute this type of transfer of wealth. And we can redesign it. Because we designed it, we can redesign it to work for the people of New York. What’s the point of having a majority progressive Democrat state Senate, that we worked so hard for in the state of New York, if we can’t stop one man from transferring $3 billion of taxpayers’ money to the richest man on this planet?
It is completely indicative of what Amazon stands for, which is why I never signed on to the original letter—elected officials wanted Amazon—because they represent the worst of our democracy. They are—they have become the market, not just controlling the market. They’ve become the market, from the supply chain to the retailers, to the online space. And they tell customers in cities and states, “Hey, this is the deal we’re going to give you.” And then, once they extract all value and money from us, they change the terms.
It’s not a second headquarters. This is merely an expansion of growth. And every neoliberal, technocratic Democrat is counting jobs, jobs, jobs, economic growth. That is not—the jobs were already in the pipeline. They were already going to expand, because the company is designed to expand. That money is not going to job creation. That money is going into the pockets of the C-levels at Amazon, and it is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.
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Ron Kim
member of the New York State Assembly. He recently co-wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times headlined “New York Should Say No to Amazon.”
— source democracynow.org | Nov 14, 2018