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If HQ2 falls through, the history will remember the politicians who were opposed to this as it remembers the board of Yahoo after it rejected the $50BN offer fr

If HQ2 falls through, the history will remember the politicians who were opposed to this as it remembers the board of Yahoo after it rejected the $50BN offer from Microsoft: yes, high five all around right after you kill the deal, but then you are the loser of the century. 25000 jobs at an average of $150k/year. State income tax is 8.8%, city income tax 3.8%, state sales tax 4%, city sales tax 4%, property taxes, etc. You easily take back in taxes 30k/year from each employee. That's 3/4 billion per year. But then wage inflation in the whole tech sector, let's say 3% per year for a few years, for 100k employees, that's about $100MM/year. Then the real estate appreciation. We are talking millions of condos/coops going up in value. Not a lot, but a little bit everywhere adds up. In NYC every apartment sale over $1MM is subject to a 1% "mansion tax". You would see tens of thousands of apartments changing hands. That's hundreds of millions of additional tax revenue right there. Well, I guess Boston is a nice city too...

Gabriel_Martin 8y ago
As a Bostonian, I don't think our housing or transit can take it. I'll happily defer.
alex504 8y ago
Nobody informed is opposed to it because of the finances. People just don't understand why we would want so many more people when gentrification and overcrowding are already making life harder for everyone in the city. If 25000 people with jobs at over 150k a year decided to leave and go to Boston, personally I would be excited. A few things taxes can't seem to buy are lower rents and a public transportation system that isn't completely overcrowded.
gorbachev 8y ago
New York will be just fine without these jobs. 25K additional jobs in New York is like a bee's fart. It would be much better for the headquarters to be located in region where 25K additional jobs wouldn't be a bee's fart. In a region like that Amazon could actually make a difference to the economic growth of the area.

Gabriel_Martin 8y ago

As a Bostonian, I don't think our housing or transit can take it. I'll happily defer.

alex504 8y ago

Nobody informed is opposed to it because of the finances. People just don't understand why we would want so many more people when gentrification and overcrowding are already making life harder for everyone in the city. If 25000 people with jobs at over 150k a year decided to leave and go to Boston, personally I would be excited. A few things taxes can't seem to buy are lower rents and a public transportation system that isn't completely overcrowded.

gorbachev 8y ago

New York will be just fine without these jobs. 25K additional jobs in New York is like a bee's fart. It would be much better for the headquarters to be located in region where 25K additional jobs wouldn't be a bee's fart. In a region like that Amazon could actually make a difference to the economic growth of the area.