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Believe It Or Not, The Amazon Pullout Wasn’t Even The Worst Economic News For NY Dems This Week
Hotair ^
| 02/17/2019
| Jazz Shaw
Posted on 02/17/2019 5:26:38 AM PST by SeekAndFind
New York State managed to draw significant national media attention this week when Amazon decided to cancel its plan to open a new HQ in Queens. AOC, who apparently now runs the Democratic Party, immediately declared victory, having ensured that a caravan of tens of thousands of new, well-paying jobs wouldn’t invade the area. But as difficult as it may be to believe, that wasn’t the worst economic news New Yorkers had to face.
The less reported story had to do with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to save the upstate region by investing in “green technology” companies, presumably also bringing in a flood of jobs. It was known as “the Buffalo Billion,” and it literally pushed one billion dollars of taxpayer money into this effort. Panasonic and Tesla were involved in the development project, but now one of the chief engineers who help craft this scheme has been forced to admit the awful truth. The Buffalo Billion is now the Buffalo Bust. (NY Post)
Amazons pullout Thursday wasnt even the worst economic-development news for Gov. Cuomo this week: Just two days earlier, his economic-development czar basically admitted that the govs signature Buffalo Billion is a . . . Buffalo Bust.
In testimony Tuesday, Empire State Development boss Howard Zemsky tried to put a positive spin on it, but he acknowledged that Cuomos gamble of $750 million in taxpayer funds on a Buffalo solar-panel plant has bombed: On its current course, theres zero sign it can host anything like the promised number of jobs.
The project has got a better future than it has a past, Zemsky lamely claimed, while admitting the states now looking at a Plan B: I think we have to work with Panasonic and Tesla, the firms running the plant, to diversify their product base. Maybe they should start making fairy dust?
Three-quarters of the Buffalo Billion ($750 million) went to the solar panel company, formerly known as Solar City before Tesla absorbed it. The rest of the billion hasn’t produced much either, but this investment was the centerpiece of the effort. After years of work, a grand total of 700 jobs were created and many of those may be disappearing if the company seriously tanks. So the taxpayers wound up paying more than a million dollars each for some engineering and manufacturing jobs that may not last out the year.
This wasn’t just a case of poor planning or bad luck, by the way. We’ve discussed the cloud of corruption which has surrounded the Buffalo Billion from the beginning. Multiple people have now gone to jail and others are awaiting trial because so much of the money was steered to politically well-connected allies of the Governor while providing little to nothing in return. The entire thing has long since begun to look more like an organized crime racket more than any sort of economic stimulus program.
A billion dollars may not sound like a lot in terms of our bloated federal balance sheet, but it can blow a serious hole in the state budget of New York. And that’s precisely what’s happened. Meanwhile, state revenue is dropping as higher earning residents flee the state and the Governor is left scrambling for excuses and explanations. Oh, well… I suppose he can just keep blaming it on Florida.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New York; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: abortion; amazon; andrewcuomo; berniesanders; buffalobillion; corruptica; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; florida; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; howardzemsky; mediawingofthednc; newyork; newyorkcity; nyc; ocasiocortez; openborders; panasonic; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; queens; smearmachine; solarcity; tesla; vermont
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To: sport
...they kill newborns very efficiently, with surgical precision .....gloating, boasting, smugly bragging, mocking and defying God....... Amen.
21
posted on
02/17/2019 6:15:30 AM PST
by
Liz
( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
To: SeekAndFind
The only issue with people leaving these liberal cesspools, they move to Texas and begin voting as liberals do. Take Austin, Texas for example.
Couple of decades, all the Texans will have to move North and take back NY for the folks that wouldn’t/couldn’t do it for themselves.
Good grief!
To: SeekAndFind
Solar only works if you close down coal and gas then subsidize it.
23
posted on
02/17/2019 6:19:15 AM PST
by
bray
(Pray for President Trump)
To: mewzilla
re: “I believe it. From 2017....
Empire Zones, NY’s failed aid to companies, still costing taxpayers: $3 billion plus “
Look at the billions pissed away when Mario the Pius killed the Shoreham nuclear plant on Long Island
“The Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant was a completed General Electric nuclear boiling water reactor located adjacent to Long Island Sound in East Shoreham, New York. The plant was built between 1973 and 1984 by the Long Island Lighting ... at the plant. Governor Mario Cuomo ordered state officials not to approve any ... “
https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/to-long-islanders-mario-cuomo-defined-opposition-to-shoreham-nuclear-plant-1.9766661
24
posted on
02/17/2019 6:27:37 AM PST
by
_Jim
(Save babies)
To: SeekAndFind
How many potholes can you fix for a billion dollars
25
posted on
02/17/2019 6:30:21 AM PST
by
VTenigma
(The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
To: 43north
re: “Look at that photo of Cuomo. Dead eyes. That is a human with no soul.”
I imagine the Egyptian pharaohs looked as atrocious, as did some of the Roam emperors ...
“Whited sepulchers” and all that.
“whited sepulchre - a person who is inwardly evil but outwardly professes to be virtuous. whited sepulcher. dissembler, dissimulator, hypocrite, phoney, phony, pretender - a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives.”
26
posted on
02/17/2019 6:30:26 AM PST
by
_Jim
(Save babies)
To: The_Media_never_lie
this new green deal is really just the Old Gore Plan. Al, Bill and Barack created their gravy train to last forever.
27
posted on
02/17/2019 6:32:04 AM PST
by
cnsmom
To: SeekAndFind
Just more crony capitalism. Like the Amazon deal.
To: Liz
Agreed!! The State of NY made human sacrifice legal and in return we’re watching it being destroyed in real time, right before our eyes.
To: ETL
Those are crazy eyes. Looks like George Soros and Satan’s love child.
30
posted on
02/17/2019 6:34:22 AM PST
by
EQAndyBuzz
(TRUMP YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!!!)
To: Leep
A lot of these green companies go bust. Because they make a product nobody wants. Most of this technology is premature; it can't deliver on the promises it makes.
Does anyone seriously think that if every household could become energy-independent, it wouldn't jump at the chance???
31
posted on
02/17/2019 6:35:04 AM PST
by
IronJack
To: 43north
Watch him and listen to him speak. To put it bluntly he is creepy. Psychopathic.
And, since in my opinion it is so obvious, that says a great deal about the sheep-like ideology of a lot of New York voters. Which is in itself rather creepy.
32
posted on
02/17/2019 6:41:11 AM PST
by
ChildOfThe60s
(If you can remember the 60's....You weren't really there)
To: mewzilla; nicollo; HereInTheHeartland
I was critical, too. And Im not a socialist.mewzilla
Im not going to pretend that I understand all the ins and outs of the economics of the Amazon deal, but consider the following exchange posted on another thread on the topic...
Re: 3 billion for 25,000 jobs is $120,000 per job. Most of the subsidies are scams on the taxpayer.HereInTheHeartland
Following response by nicollo:
Over how many years, or is that figure annual (doubtful)?
If thats an absolute number, which it seems to be from news reports, then, say, over 10 years it comes to $12K / job, which would yield an enormous return for the city in taxes, economic activity, etc., not to mention all associated economic activity and jobs to support those Amazon workers and infrastructure.
And if so, its plain dumb of NYC and its plainly dumb Representative from the Bronx (via Westchester County).--nicollo
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3727808/posts?page=97#97
33
posted on
02/17/2019 6:42:04 AM PST
by
ETL
(Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
To: EQAndyBuzz
34
posted on
02/17/2019 6:42:37 AM PST
by
ETL
(Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
To: Pearls Before Swine
Amazon doesn’t pay taxes.
35
posted on
02/17/2019 6:43:31 AM PST
by
gcparent
(Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
To: servantboy777
I think it’s a game called musical states.
36
posted on
02/17/2019 6:44:43 AM PST
by
gcparent
(Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
To: MCF
It is the Mafia with campaign banners. They are only interested in helping themselves not the citizens.
One of the things that most people misunderstand about Hitler and the Nazis (and, no, I am NOT saying Cuomo and the Dems are Nazis) is that much of their plans and schemes were to direct state money into their own pockets. A copy of Mein Kampf was required in every school and library in the country, with royalties going to the author. Hitler copyrighted his image and got paid for every copy, including millions of postage stamps. He and other Nazi leaders were some of the richest men in the world at the time of their deaths.
It is kind of odd that two recent ex-Presidents whose entire careers were in ‘public service’ are now multi millionaires.
37
posted on
02/17/2019 6:45:50 AM PST
by
hanamizu
To: gcparent
Amazon doesnt pay taxes.True, at the Federal level.
However, the $3 billion was characterized as a "tax expenditure," which means that it might have been for fees other than Federal income tax. Real estate tax, perhaps? Or state pension/unemployment tax? There are a lot of possibilities.
The only other one is that NY was actually laying out money--but that wouldn't be a tax expenditure. We can look up the details--but it would be an autopsy, because, "It's dead, Jim."
38
posted on
02/17/2019 6:48:11 AM PST
by
Pearls Before Swine
( "It's always a party when you're eating the seed corn.")
To: SeekAndFind
The “Buffal Billion” is nothing compared to Gary Brown’s train. The official estimate is that they blew through $5.7 billion before Newsom killed the project. I have zero doubt they are lying about that number and the real amount is closer to ten billion or maybe higher. I doubt they are including the huge sums spent by every city, town and count where the route was planned to debate the exact route and planning for ancillary projects like electrifying CalTrain commuter trains on the San Francisco peninsula.
The good news is they are going to throw good money after bad and finish the sorely needed (smirk) Bakersfield to Visalia line. The four people who will ride it are happy.
Government is thoroughly corrupt top to bottom.
To: SeekAndFind
The pathetic losers in ny who vote for LIB/DIM malignancies deserve everything they get. It couldn’t happen to a better bunch of lunatics.
40
posted on
02/17/2019 6:53:44 AM PST
by
hal ogen
(First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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