3 ms·
1. New York State has a high tax burden. They don't just collect income taxes - they also collect property, sales and capital gains. $12k per year all-in for a
by pzone 8y ago
1. New York State has a high tax burden. They don't just collect income taxes - they also collect property, sales and capital gains. $12k per year all-in for a high income worker is pretty typical when you account for these additional taxes.
2. Amazon inc. will also be paying taxes. It doesn't fall entirely on individuals.
3. Ten years isn't that long for a four hundred year old city.
Seems like an clean net positive for the city even viewed in the shallowest of accounting terms. This doesn't include the positive network effects of encouraging the future growth of Amazon and other tech companies in the area.
- fastball 8y agoA lot can change in 10 years. What if Amazon decides they only need 10k employees in "HQ2" after 5 years? Better bird in hand than two in the bush. NY needs to focus on improving infrastructure now, which is the only guaranteed thing that will promote growth in the long term. And to do that, NY needs to be 1. less corrupt and 2. not give giant tax breaks to corporations that already have offices in the city. Yes, maybe Amazon HQ2 will be a net positive 10 years down the road, but NY should focus on fixing its broken subway system and other structural issues so that the city can actually support 10 Amazons in 10 years. And HQ2 literally did the opposite of that (increasing ridership while decreasing revenue in the short term is not how you improve infrastructure, surprisingly).