6 ms·

In one move, HQ2 will bring NYC/NY State a very attractive amount of tax revenue. How much, approximately? Or do you just think it will be... "a lot"?

by drugme 8y ago

sokoloff 8y ago
Ballpark state income tax at 6.5% of $250K * 25K = $406M/yr, with city tax on top. Ballpark property tax at $12K * 25K = $300M/yr Ballpark state sales tax at 4% of $50K in spending * 25K = $50M/yr Naturally, some of the property tax is displacing existing property tax payers and some of the income tax will be lost to other employers moving out of NYC area, but it seem quite reasonable to be OoM $500M per year at scale.
- drugme 8y ago
  6.5% of $250K x 25K = $406M/yr, It only takes a minute or two verify that $250K is a completely unrealistic estimate for the average salary of a likely HQ2 employee. In fact the state's own estimate is around $150k. The property tax estimate is similarly skewed -- on top of the fact that you're ignoring the additional cost of services to support all these people. I'm not saying there's benefit-to-cost ratio argument to be made in favor of HQ2 (if everything were to boil down to those terms) -- just that you seem to be, well... pulling numbers out of the air.
  - elamje 8y ago
    What services will cost more for the city? Public transportation will have a ridership subscription boost, property values will go up for local owners, service businesses will have ~25k more potential customers...
    - drugme 8y ago
      What services will cost more for the city? The usual costs per new resident (that property taxes are normally earmarked for) perhaps?
    - elamje 8y ago
      I understand your concern about pulling the numbers out of the air, but I think the commenter above made a stronger case for those numbers than you have with the "cost" numbers. Just a thought to consider
    - jowiar 8y ago
      For some cities 25k is a big deal. For NYC it’s rounding error. NYC is big enough to have a healthy relationship with Amazon, and part of that is knowing is that you’re the seller, not the buyer.
      - drugme 8y ago
        For some cities 25k is a big deal. For NYC it’s rounding error. The point is that the gain in revenue from income and property is being presented as basically just "free" money. It's not.
- jinushaun 8y ago
  You know you're living in a bubble if you think all 25,000 employees will make $250,000 per year. That is not anywhere close to average. For one thing, they won’t all be engineers. Cost of living is also lower than SV.

In one move, HQ2 will bring NYC/NY State a very attractive amount of tax revenue. How much, approximately? Or do you just think it will be... "a lot"?

by drugme 8y ago

In one move, HQ2 will bring NYC/NY State a very attractive amount of tax revenue. How much, approximately? Or do you just think it will be... "a lot"?

sokoloff 8y ago

Ballpark state income tax at 6.5% of $250K * 25K = $406M/yr, with city tax on top. Ballpark property tax at $12K * 25K = $300M/yr Ballpark state sales tax at 4% of $50K in spending * 25K = $50M/yr Naturally, some of the property tax is displacing existing property tax payers and some of the income tax will be lost to other employers moving out of NYC area, but it seem quite reasonable to be OoM $500M per year at scale.

drugme 8y ago
6.5% of $250K x 25K = $406M/yr, It only takes a minute or two verify that $250K is a completely unrealistic estimate for the average salary of a likely HQ2 employee. In fact the state's own estimate is around $150k. The property tax estimate is similarly skewed -- on top of the fact that you're ignoring the additional cost of services to support all these people. I'm not saying there's benefit-to-cost ratio argument to be made in favor of HQ2 (if everything were to boil down to those terms) -- just that you seem to be, well... pulling numbers out of the air.
- elamje 8y ago
  What services will cost more for the city? Public transportation will have a ridership subscription boost, property values will go up for local owners, service businesses will have ~25k more potential customers...
  - drugme 8y ago
    What services will cost more for the city? The usual costs per new resident (that property taxes are normally earmarked for) perhaps?
  - elamje 8y ago
    I understand your concern about pulling the numbers out of the air, but I think the commenter above made a stronger case for those numbers than you have with the "cost" numbers. Just a thought to consider
  - jowiar 8y ago
    For some cities 25k is a big deal. For NYC it’s rounding error. NYC is big enough to have a healthy relationship with Amazon, and part of that is knowing is that you’re the seller, not the buyer.
    - drugme 8y ago
      For some cities 25k is a big deal. For NYC it’s rounding error. The point is that the gain in revenue from income and property is being presented as basically just "free" money. It's not.
jinushaun 8y ago
You know you're living in a bubble if you think all 25,000 employees will make $250,000 per year. That is not anywhere close to average. For one thing, they won’t all be engineers. Cost of living is also lower than SV.