NEW YORK  - Amazon.com and New York City have shot themselves and each other in the foot. The $800 billion e-commerce giant on Thursday decided to ditch its plans to open a second headquarters, known as HQ2, in the Big Apple after local opposition to the $3 billion in state and city incentives it would receive. It makes Amazon look short-term greedy and not interested in community concerns. Politicians, meanwhile, have cost New York both tax revenue and up to 40,000 jobs.

The deal Amazon struck with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was not the only issue. In two meetings with New York City Council, executives expressed a lack of support for unions. Amazon’s facial-recognition service, which is used by the U.S. government, didn’t help, either.

Amazon, though, doesn't need New York. Its business is hardly dependent on having a big presence in the city, where the corporate tax rate is a not insignificant 9 percent. Executives can shift resources, if they so choose, to Virginia, where the company is building its other HQ2.

Likewise, New York City doesn't need Amazon. It can attract big hitters without offering them tax breaks: Alphabet unit Google, for example, announced in December that it would invest $1 billion and double its workforce of more than 7,000. The top three nongovernmental companies in NYC by employees, Northwell Health, JPMorgan and Mount Sinai Health System, increased their workforce 8 percent, 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively, between 2016 and 2017, according to Crain's New York Business. And the Big Apple has a better score for starting a business than the United States as a whole, according to The World Bank.

The whole process shines a spotlight on corporate tax subsidies that cities feel they have to offer. Amazon, Cuomo and de Blasio touted big gains for the region. But in the short term at least, Amazon looked set to get more back in incentives than it would pay in taxes, reckoned New York’s Independent Budget Office. Canning such opaque and incendiary practices entirely – or making incentives applicable to all businesses - would be a smart move.

None of the players emerges from this fracas looking good. The only saving grace is that they have suffered little more than a flesh wound.

On Twitter https://twitter.com/alpgomez

 

CONTEXT NEWS

- Amazon on Feb. 14 said it would not continue with plans to build a second headquarters in New York City. The company faced opposition from city and state politicians over the $3 billion in incentives that Amazon would have received. The company had previously said it would create 25,000 jobs and $2.5 billion of investment in Long Island City, the neighborhood it had chosen for its operations.

- Amazon said it would not be searching for a replacement venue, but would continue with plans to build its other HQ2 in Virginia as well as invest in Tennessee.

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(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

 

 (Editing by Antony Currie and Martin Langfield) ((amanda.gomez@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: amanda.gomez.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))