Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

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>"Ugh... any company moving into NY can get these same large tax concessions."

Really? Let look at what was offered:

1 $897 million from the city’s Relocation and Employment Assistance Program (REAP) and

2 $386 million from the Industrial & Commercial Abatement Program (ICAP)

3 $1.2 billion in “Excelsior” credits

4 $505 million in a capital grant

Yes the first 3 are existing programs. But the idea that those sums or anything remotely close to them would simply be made available to any company moving to NY is comical at best. Now lets look at number 4, a 505 million dollar capital grant. That's a pure giveaway compliment of the tax payer. And let's remember that both the city and state governments put together dedicated teams to find this money for Amazon. This was in addition to the work the city and state did for give Amazon data, such as "detailed information on the availability of machine-learning specialists, user-experience designers and hardware engineers."[1]

There is no way any of this is available to "any company moving to NY."

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/technology/amazon-new-yor...

> Yes the first 3 are existing programs. But the idea that those sums or anything remotely close to them would simply be made available to any company moving to NY is comical at best.

> $897 million from the city’s Relocation and Employment Assistance Program (REAP)

That works out to $35,880 per employee that Amazon promised. Per the REAP program website[1], the credits available are $3000 per employee for 12 years. That actually works out to slightly more per employee ($36,000). So yes, any company not currently in NYC that creates 25,000 jobs in one of the designated areas would get the $897MM in benefits.

> $386 million from the Industrial & Commercial Abatement Program (ICAP)

ICAP is a property tax abatement available to any company willing to redevelop qualifying properties[2]. The value of the abatement is based on the final value of the property and which benefit schedule[3] it qualifies for. Any company willing to put in the same amount of redevelopment in one of the designated areas as Amazon was will get the same abatement value.

> $1.2 billion in “Excelsior” credits

I don't have the time at the moment to calculate how this was arrived at, but looking at the overview of credits available[4] it appears to follow similar formulas as the NYC programs.

In short, I do not see it as "comical" by any measure that any company offering to create 25,000 new jobs and redevelop hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property in designated areas would get these same values. Amazon didn't get these numbers because they were Amazon, but because of the scale of what they proposed to do. Whether that is a good idea to offer to any company is open for debate.

[1] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/benefits/business-reap.pag...

[2] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/benefits/benefits-industri...

[3] https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/finance/downloads/pdf/icap/icap_...

[4] https://esd.ny.gov/excelsior-jobs-program

It looks like you left out the 505 million dollar capital grant part.

>"In short, I do not see it as "comical" by any measure that any company offering to create 25,000 new jobs and redevelop hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property in designated areas "

It sounds like you aren't familiar with NYC. Long Island City has long since been "developed." That building boom started 18 years ago. The volume and velocity of luxury high rises appearing across the East River has been incredible. LIC does not need to be "redeveloped" nor is it some basket case "designated" area that requires incentives and credits to build there.

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