Lawmakers Want To Stop The Next Amazon Deal Before It's Made

NEW YORK — Amazon's messy breakup with New York has some lawmakers ready to swear off corporations. State legislators have introduced a bill that would end the practice of luring companies to the Empire State with tailor-made subsidies.

The so-called End Corporate Welfare Act would sign New York on to an interstate compact barring company-specific incentives in an effort to stop what Assemblyman Ron Kim, one of the bill's sponsors, called "economic cage wars" between governments.

"It’s about demonstrating solidarity among our communities and between our governments to say that we’re no longer going to compete in a race to the bottom," state Sen. Julia Salazar, a Brooklyn Democrat, said at a Wednesday news conference.

The bill was first introduced about two weeks before Amazon's Valentine's Day announcement that it was abandoning plans to bring a 4 million-square-foot headquarters and 25,000 jobs to Long Island City in exchange for nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and grants.

Except for $505 million in direct capital grants, the incentives Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio's administrations offered were essentially tax discounts the firm would have eventually received.

But the measure's sponsors — Kim, Salazar and state Sen. Michael Gianaris, who represents the Queens neighborhood — argue the now-dead deal was just one example of the state investing in a corporation rather than infrastructure, education and other community improvements.

And there's no correlation between the companies subsidies receive and the number of jobs they produce, the bill's supporters argue.

Amazon picked New York City and Arlington, Virginia for its two new headquarters locations after a public search that lasted more than a year. The United States should follow Europe's lead in barring companies from using such contests to force incentives out of governments, said Gianaris, one of the deal's leading critics.

Ten other states have introduced or plan to introduce legislation to create the nationwide pact, Kim said. If one already existed, Gianaris said, "we wouldn’t be even talking about Amazon right now."

"Either they would come here without the subsidies, which is how these types of things should unfold, or not, but it wouldn’t be by holding us over the barrel and insisting that they get 3 billion dollars," Gianaris said.

The legislation is unlikely to be embraced by Cuomo, a Democrat, who has blamed the state Senate in particular for scaring the company off.

"We remain focused on making this state more competitive by cutting taxes, creating jobs and making New York more affordable. We’ll leave the theatrics to others," Tyrone Stevens, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement.

The city and state offered Amazon more than just tax breaks to land the largest economic development deal in New York history. Officials also promised to help the company get a helipad at or near its development site. And the governor even offered to change his name to "Amazon Cuomo" before the deal was announced.

Backers of the deal, including Cuomo and de Blasio, argued it would be an economic boon for the city. Amazon's opponents have drawn backlash in the days since the company's shocking reversal — the New York Post and the New York Daily News even plastered Gianaris's face on their front pages.

But the Democratic senator said he just did what was in his constituents' best interest.

"On the street I’ve had people crying and hugging me with gratitude because they were in fear of losing their homes," he said. "And that’s people by the dozens."

(Lead image: People stand in the lobby for Amazon offices Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, in New York. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)