Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have crafted a massive taxpayer subsidy to entice Amazon into creating 25,000 to 40,000 high-paying jobs in New York.
The purported cost-benefit ratio, described by Cuomo as the most lopsided in the history of economic development deals, is probably skewed by the assumption that a prime swath of Long Island City would otherwise remain underdeveloped.
Still, the state-city deal to bring one of Amazon’s two new headquarters to Long Island City might at least have provided New York City with another big benefit — a much-needed model of advanced, efficient building practices. After all, Amazon isn’t just a big corporation: It’s widely admired as a global leader in technological innovation.
Instead, it appears the deal will ensure that Amazon is saddled with the same arcane and outmoded construction-union work rules and compensation levels that have saddled New York City with the nation’s highest urban construction costs.
Amazon is promising to invest $2.5 billion in Long Island City in the coming decade, and up to $3.6 billion when ancillary community projects are counted over 15 years.
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E.J. McMahon is research director at the Empire Center for Public Policy and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post