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The New York governor has accused Democratic colleagues opposed to Amazon's new headquarters in Queens of pleading before a bunch of activists and warned they would take responsibility if the company pulled out of the deal.
Andrew Cuomo was responding to a Washington Post report that the e-commerce group was reconsidering the announced investment in New York with great fanfare just three months ago, due to local hostility to the band. with regard to his projects.
"I understand politics very well. But I have never seen such an absurd situation where the political and obvious aggravation would defeat a serious economic development project, "said Cuomo, accusing his opponents of irresponsible opportunists guilty of" government misconduct ".
Amazon did not address the report directly. In a statement, the company said it was "focused on engaging with our new neighbors" and – thanks to its investments in the community – "working hard to demonstrate what kind of neighbor we will be".
Some people familiar with the negotiations have expressed surprise at the report – although they have suggested that this might be helpful in refocusing what has become a heated debate in New York.
While Amazon was warmly welcomed to Virginia, the other destination he chose for his new headquarters after a very public public search, he provoked a reaction in Queens that the company and his local councilors had not anticipated.
Amazon executives have been publicly outraged at a series of recent city council meetings, in which officials seized the company's new heliport – presumably for the use of its founder, billionaire Jeff Bezos.
The complaints about this deal range from $ 3 billion in tax incentives promised by municipal and state authorities to attract a company that, in the view of many, would have come to New York anyway, to the disruption of a neighborhood already strained by gentrification. Leftist activists, many of whom are affiliated with the American Socialist Democrats, have organized an energetic campaign in the field.
Cuomo's relatives, who defended the deal as "the biggest economic development transaction in the state's history," initially rejected the opposition as local politicians seeking their share of the star.
But they became more worried after a turn of events this week in which they were bypbaded by members of their own party and the deal seemed to be really compromised.
The Democrat-controlled New York Senate has appointed a representative of the Queen, Michael Gianaris, declared critic of the agreement, to a seat in a state council that would give him an effective right of veto over the pact.
Gianaris then proposed legislation that would prevent Amazon from taking advantage of the new "opportunity zone" tax advantages for investments in poor neighborhoods. The Queens Island suburb of Long Island, where the project to build a second head office was built, was declared as such by the governor, even though it does not meet the socio-economic criteria. .
"The typical behavior of Andrew Cuomo is to launch personal attacks while he can not get out of them," Gianaris told the Financial Times. "He should stop making temper tantrums and focus on the fact that he's getting a secret deal that's bad for New York."
A recent survey commissioned by Amazon revealed that more than 70 percent of Queens residents have signed on to this agreement, which is expected to create 25,000 new jobs in the region over the next 10 years.
The badistants of Mr. Cuomo believe that it is time to win the public argument before the state gives its final agreement to the agreement in 2020. They are convinced that Mr. Gianaris and other Democratic opponents seek to protect themselves against a challenge from the party's upwardly progressive party. wing, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the recently elected US representative.
Ocasio-Cortez, whose congressional district occupies part of Queens, criticized the deal shortly after her announcement, noting Amazon's opposition to unions.
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Cuomo admitted that some residents of Queens had "legitimate and legitimate concerns" about rising rents and other effects of the Amazon. But the other opponents, he said, were "based on an ideology. Amazon is rich, Jeff Bezos is rich, we should not offer them incentives.
The governor added, "This is a very small core and a very small group of politicians who engage in local politics. The problem is that the Senate of the state has adopted this position. And that's what could stop Amazon. And if they do, I would not want to be a Democratic senator returning to my district to explain why Amazon left. "
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