Amazon HQ2 Deal 'Lightning Rod’ for ‘Rhetoric on Both Extremes,’ Says Cuomo

New York State’s $1.5 billion incentives package luring Amazon to build a new headquarters campus in Long Island City, Queens (see 1811130013), “is a lightning rod for the political rhetoric on both extremes,” wrote Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) Monday. The New York Post, “representative of extreme conservatives,” was “factually baseless” for editorializing the deal as a billion-dollar giveaway, said Cuomo. New York “gave Amazon nothing,” except for tax incentives that have been “operational for decades” with bipartisan support, he said. Rupert Murdoch's Post “is being totally hypocritical,” because companies that Murdoch controls “have aggressively sought and received hundreds of millions in government tax incentives from New York State,” he said. Murdoch's News Corp. didn't comment. Of “socialists” who blasted the deal as a billion-dollar giveaway to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos when the money should have gone instead to the poor and needy, it's "a politically appealing argument,” but also wrong, said Cuomo: “We give Amazon nothing and their revenues give us approximately $900 million annually.” Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist whose district borders the site where Amazon will build the campus, tweeted that the deal was “extremely concerning to residents here” because New York communities "need MORE investment, not less." Cuomo countered that Amazon’s presence will bolster the region’s tech sector. ”There will be a new school in the community, new residential apartments, investments in public transit, a tech incubator, a partnership with the local housing authority to create employment opportunities and myriad other local benefits,” he said.