Electile Dysfunction (Current students plz look!)

[G.Irish]

So a couple of points:

Did NYC government actually renege on any of their promises?
I don't think they did. A bunch of people were making noise but I haven't seen where anything was cancelled on the government side.

The tax incentives were $500 million, not $3 billion
The $3 billion number was existing tax incentives that any company could've taken advantage of, they weren't created for Amazon. $500 million in tax incentives was offered for Amazon, and that was contingent on them creating jobs at the specified salaries. The increased tax base from high paying jobs would've paid for the tax incentive and then some, based on NYC tax rates. But people kept throwing out that $3 billion number like it was some windfall concocted just for Amazon.

If no one cancelled anything, it's weaksauce for Amazon to pull out
Amazon should've expected criticism for making a reality show out of their HQ2 process. They were playing cities against each other to extract tax incentives, so of course some people were gonna be salty about it. I don't see what the point is of taking your ball and going home just because some mean old politicians and disgruntled citizens said mean things about your company.

The tax giveaway bonanza sucks, but that's the way our government is set up
I don't really believe in municipalities doing this tax break song and dance to win business but at the end of the day each state can make its own tax policy. And each state can use its tax policy as a carrot. If you try to outlaw tax incentives for individual businesses, states will just change corporate tax policy to woo companies. And I don't see a way you can ban than without fundamentally altering state sovereignty.

So this kind of stuff is here to stay. If citizens make a stink about tax incentive favoritism more often, less companies will be as brazen about playing the game, but I think the lobbying will just shift towards lowering corporate tax rates.