Most of us, anyway.

Majority Support NYS Deal with Amazon

Loudonville, NY. By 56 to 36 percent New Yorkers approve of the recently announced deal between Amazon and New York which grants up to $3 billion in state and city incentives to Amazon in return for the online retailer locating its corporate offices in Queens where it is projected to generate 25,000 jobs, according to a new Siena College poll of New York State registered voters released today. Eighty-five percent of voters say it is either very (60 percent) or somewhat (25 percent) important that New York State strive to count every single New Yorker in the 2020 Census. Equal percentages, 44 percent support and 44 percent oppose broadening the current sports betting law to allow for online sports betting.

“Even as Amazon is said to be reexamining the deal with New York to locate in Queens, by twenty points New York voters approve of the deal,” said Siena College Research Institute director, Don Levy. “Upstate voters are evenly divided but suburban voters strongly approve and in New York City, where some local activists have voiced opposition, voters approve of the deal by 23 points.

This Siena College Poll was conducted February 4-7, 2019 by telephone calls conducted in English to 778 New York State registered voters. Respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest male in the household. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline and cell phone telephone numbers (both from ASDE Survey Sampler) from within New York State. Data was statistically adjusted by age, party by region, and gender to ensure representativeness. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social and cultural research primarily in NYS. SCRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. For more information, call Don Levy at (518) 783-2901. For survey cross-tabs: www.Siena.edu/SCRI/SNY.

Crosstabs

https://scri.siena.edu/2019/02/12/majority-support-nys-deal-with-amazon/

When people argue against polls, it's often because they disagree with the findings.

If it's a 4 point difference, then I'll question whether the people were left out that would have changed the result. If it's a 10 point or more spread, then the poll is final.

Gotta start somewhere.

Most of the city supports Amazon moving in.

....who was born and raised in NYC and just recently was reelected Governor by a margin of 23% after winning his primary by 31%?

....let those without a vested interest in creating jobs keep their noses out of it this time.

To help the homeless, as they did in Seattle.

Defeated because Amazon had sufficient leverage.

Downplay it all you want, it was bad corporate personhood. New York doesn’t need such terrible neighbors.

Estimating what a tax will bring in and actually collecting that amount are two totally different things. Estimates were based on existing numbers. certainly Amazon was the huge leader in the opposition. And i rarely if ever, use them because i dont care for Bezos attempt to run the world. But the jobs coming to Queens were going to be real, and well paying. Not to mention all the peripheral business. And all those would have been paying NYC taxes too.
When you want to raise REAL money, you pass a SPLOST. Its worked where i live for 30 yrs.

Promises of jobs alone to only a segment of the affected population do not good neighbors make.

Thats kinda how it works

Unclear how your reply relates to my comment in any way about Amazon fleeing public scrutiny of this terrible backroom scheme but I do appreciate you taking the time to educate us so generously.

....(and vaguely) is the Seattle deal.

....the NYC "agreement" (let's call it that, not a "deal", okay?)

considering it can afford an army of internet lobbyists it should be able to do fine without any welfare.

I live in Seattle and the fears are all very real - and it's not just housing and congestion. We live in an endless, relentless construction zone, people are being displaced all over town while developers slaver over looser restrictions on height and knock down existing buildings (I read a quote today where a developer said that a building put up in 1963 had reached the end of its lifespan), the neighborhoods are fighting a desperate battle to save their character, and smaller businesses are vanishing on an almost daily basis. It's frightening, no one knows what more disaster lies ahead. I counted 35 mostly local lunch places I used to go to downtown that have disappeared in the last five years, many replaced by chains like Subway, Jersey Mike's, Potbelly, and Jimmie John's.

And their anti-union stance should give city officials in Seattle - and Andrew Cuomo - pause. Seattle was built on unions. To turn its back on them now is an insult to the past. And our infrastructure is strained beyond comprehension, so the tax breaks are a huge problem.

What you're describing is a city with a strong economy.

Just read an article today about people with Section 8 vouchers who are in a building that a developer wants to knock down. There are 21 units. When the new building is finished, their offer is to have five affordable units (and that's market rate, not what people are paying now). When those people are turned out, where are they to go? Meanwhile, the luxury apartments downtown have a 25% vacancy rate. Small stores are being closed all over, there was a hat store, for example, that had been there 84 years, and was doing good business, but the new landlords wouldn't even negotiate rent with them, now the building has three of its four storefronts empty, probably waiting for some chain to come along. I'm not sure how you can think that depressing unions and forcing small businesses out and making housing unaffordable is something places would "kill" to have. We need a break here. The long term residents are meaningless to the companies and government that are here right now. All they care about is tech transplants (the person who answered the phone at my county councilman's office admitted as much when I called to complain about something).

I've lived and worked near construction zones now for over 10 years. I have one bus stop that's closed for four years for construction. This is not a pleasant way to live.

I wish these companies would spread the wealth a little across the country. But they don't provide a tax base - they just demand breaks. Detroit couldn't afford (and shouldn't even consider) giving Amazon a $3B tax beak and neither can other places that need help. Amazon doesn't want to go in and help create infrastructure - they want to piggyback on what's there.

And Seattle is not a vital city at the moment. There are a few hot spots to go to in the evening, but with all the empty stores and the half empty apartment buildings, it's not a tenth of how vibrant it was 20 years ago.

This is about DINO corporatists trying to line their own pockets by pissing on our heads and telling us it's raining.

NYC will be fine with or without Amazon. So will Northern Virginia.

I would have rather seen Amazon go to a city that needs them. Detroit, Cleveland, upstate NY, western PA, etc.

Cuomo-- one city in your state is one of the two in the country without a growing economy. Make a deal with Amazon and bring them to Elmira. It is less than an hour's drive from an Ivy League college if they're concerned about an educated workforce.

No disrespect intended but the congestion and high housing prices have been here before Amazon. This area is generally a desirable place to live.

I grew up in the Puget Sound Region moving here as a kid in 1961.

I remember the Boeing recession of the late 60s early 70s. My dad retired from the military then and had a hell of a time finding work.

Our family had to go on food stamps for a while.

I'll take today over those days anytime.

Instead of going after the biggest tax credit, why does Amazon go someplace that has been devasted by the loss of manufacturing jobs, or otherwise hit hard by the recession. With 25K good paying jobs, Bezis gas the opportunity to TRANSFORM a struggling city. Why not choose a city in Ohio, Indiana or coal country. Sure, many of the high tech workers would have to be brought in from elsewhere, but all those good paying jobs means business for restaurants and home builders. It means impriving the tax base and public schools. I rralize Bezos doesn't HAVE to do this, but instead of spending his billions going to space, why not resuscitate a dying city. They could rename it Bezosburg!

Amazon has opened a large distribution warehouse in Staten Island. The headquarters is for more senior positions and their looking for a living environment that already exists as well as transportation and financial resources.

That should happen real soon now, right?

that forces the state taxpayers to fund infrastructure.

It reminds me of the shell game, I will bring you jobs and the state then taxes the employees for the job, and then the said company pays nothing in taxes, and pits cities against each other to get a company that pays no taxes.......................but just give us the infrastructure cost for free...................

Just like United threatening to leave the Port Authority in New Jersey because of the loss of tax incentives, and the airlines get 1 billion in tax incentives...........................some one has to pay for that incentive............somewhere................there is no free lunch, except if you are company that paid zilch in taxes from earned income........................

Since the median salary in the Queens location would be about $200K, that's a whole lot of tax revenue.

Though Amazon is also backing off from a development in Seattle, which makes me think they foresee a downturn in the next few years and are delaying capital spending.

And they'll continue to make money selling and delivering into that economy. They just won't be hiring any workers from that economy.

As for this HQ, some city leaders rejected it, so Amazon is going elsewhere. Everybody's happy, right?

doesn’t give a crap about that. A paycheck is a paycheck. A good career in a fast growing company is important to some people.

...don't give a crap about that.

But I've worked there for 7 years. They give me a steady pay check, I get awards for doing a good job. I get free Internet and cable service.
My city can't fix pot holes. They keep raising fees for parking down town and getting your car inspected. In any conflict, I know who I'd support and I know how I'd vote. I love my community, but I have nothing but contempt for the people that run it. During the darkest, worst parts of my life, the city made things worse for me though fines and crap. (when I was working 11 hours per night at Dell, I would supplement my income with newspaper delivery. In my haste to finish up and get home one night, I got tagged for Failure to Yield. The fine made the time and labor I was putting in useless to me the rest of the month. That job turned me into a volunteer). Having a good job made things better.

his next step in Amazonifying the country... he wants to start seeding it in a couple of major metropolises.

I doubt it’s just about what we see on the surface. The guy is always a couple steps ahead of that.

Hoping that the municipal funded grants don’t tie the hands of the citizenry down the road.

responsibility, it’s all their game. All we can do is hope they don’t get really nefarious.