Not a good look for Jeff Bezos: Amazon gets 'corporate welfare' blowback over its new headquarters

Jeff Bezos probably wasn't expecting today's front cover of the New York Post. The founder and CEO of Amazon should, in theory, be basking in appreciative afterglow from the press in the nation's media capital, given the company's announcement that it's chosen the Queens borough of New York City as the location of one of its two new non-Seattle headquarters (the other will be in Arlington, Virginia). But the Post depicts Bezos as a laughing money-grubber who held city politicians hostage to extract billions in tax breaks—and the right to install a helipad at its new Queens facility. Inside, the paper slams the so-called HQ2 in a piece titled "The Amazon deal is no win for New Yorkers." The New York Post editorial board writes, New York is offering vastly more than Virginia for its half of the new Amazon headquarters. What's up with that? The city and state ponied up nearly $3 billion in grants, credits and so on over 25 years. Down south, Amazon is getting $573 million plus $195 million in infrastructure upgrades. Sure looks like Amazon's Jeff Bezos just fleeced Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio as rubes. Keep reading here. Meanwhile, in the response to an anti-Amazon tweet from a newly elected Democratic Socialist, the National Review—the conservative magazine founded by William F. Buckley Jr.—has published an editorial titled "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Right About Amazon's Corporate Welfare." In it, Veronique de Rugy writes, I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ocasio-Cortez is mostly correct on this matter, and her conservative critics are wrong. Handouts like this to Amazon and other prominent companies are appalling in their cronyism, pure and simple. Keep reading here. This is the tweet from the U.S. Representative-elect that prompted the National Review editorial: Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.

Not a good look for Jeff Bezos: Amazon gets 'corporate welfare' blowback over its new headquarters

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