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Average $160,000 household income per employee = ~$14,000 per year in state + local income taxes. That's ~$8,500 per year just to the state in income taxes. In

Average $160,000 household income per employee = ~$14,000 per year in state + local income taxes. That's ~$8,500 per year just to the state in income taxes. Include all taxes from 25,000 employees + their families (property taxes, sales taxes, etc), and it's a very likely $4.5 to $5 billion over ten years to state & local coffers from the employees. And that's just the direct benefits. It excludes any taxes Amazon corporate would pay, such as property taxes on any real-estate they buy over that ten years. It also ignores the potential for additional expansion in that ten years (Amazon will more than double in size over that time, to half a trillion dollars plus in sales, I'd bet on more than 25k employees). It would have easily paid for itself, which was actually never in dispute. People didn't like it regardless of the fact that it would have paid for itself. They disliked the idea of giving Amazon anything.

fastball 8y ago
How do you figure that a family is paying more in property tax / sales tax than a not family? Property size is a function of income, as is sales tax, and you've already included income in your calculations. The other issue is that this is assuming literally all 25k employees would be new residents of NY. Assuming this is true (which it probably wouldn't be), that also means that the city needs to maintain infrastructure for at least 50k new residents (probably more like 75k assuming an average family size of 3). That's not an insignificant amount of new people who require public services. Regardless, ($14k * 25k * 10 = $3.5B). Not that much more than the initial tax rebate, and not accounting for any additional costs to the city. Also assuming that the rate of tax-paying by employees remains consistent, and that they don't cut any staff in HQ2, which is far from certain. As to: Property taxes on real-estate owned by AMZN You realize any property that Amazon would purchase is already owned by someone, right? And that the current owner is already paying property taxes. Amazon already has an office in NYC. If they want to expand in NYC they can. Amazon growing in NYC is not at all predicated on the existence of HQ2. The only probable reason Amazon would continue to expand in NY specifically would be for more tax breaks. Which kinda defeats the argument that "Amazon will grow and we can collect more taxes".

fastball 8y ago

How do you figure that a family is paying more in property tax / sales tax than a not family? Property size is a function of income, as is sales tax, and you've already included income in your calculations. The other issue is that this is assuming literally all 25k employees would be new residents of NY. Assuming this is true (which it probably wouldn't be), that also means that the city needs to maintain infrastructure for at least 50k new residents (probably more like 75k assuming an average family size of 3). That's not an insignificant amount of new people who require public services. Regardless, ($14k * 25k * 10 = $3.5B). Not that much more than the initial tax rebate, and not accounting for any additional costs to the city. Also assuming that the rate of tax-paying by employees remains consistent, and that they don't cut any staff in HQ2, which is far from certain. As to: Property taxes on real-estate owned by AMZN You realize any property that Amazon would purchase is already owned by someone, right? And that the current owner is already paying property taxes. Amazon already has an office in NYC. If they want to expand in NYC they can. Amazon growing in NYC is not at all predicated on the existence of HQ2. The only probable reason Amazon would continue to expand in NY specifically would be for more tax breaks. Which kinda defeats the argument that "Amazon will grow and we can collect more taxes".