Senate Democrats and Cuomo vie for Amazon deal – The Buffalo News



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ALBANY – Party alliances aside, Democratic governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Senate Democrats have had tense relations over the years at best.

Friday, the situation got worse.

The internal quarrels erupted in the eyes of all. Cuomo has publicly stated that Democratic senators were engaged in a "crackdown" exercise to try to kill an Amazonian office complex destined for Queens and, moreover, that they had a plan to raise taxes on wealthy people . this will kill the state's finances.

Democratic senators responded: Cuomo is afflicted with the "false news" syndrome.

Democratic Senate claims that Cuomo helped the Republicans retain control of the Senate until last year, while serving his own political interests to ensure that Democrats take over the 63-member chamber.

This year, the Democrats of the legislature acted on their own terms and schedule with a view to the adoption of a multitude of bills, ranging from the right to abortion to the policies of the legislature. immigration through gun control.

On Friday, the wave intensified after the Washington Post quoted anonymous officials claiming that Amazon would be willing to forgo a major deal – with billions of dollars in tax incentives – to install a large office complex in Long Island City, across from East River, between Manhattan.

At an independent event on Long Island, Cuomo accused Democratic senators of trying to kill the Amazon deal. "For the state Senate to oppose Amazon, it was government malpractice. If they prevent Amazon from coming to New York, they'll have to explain it to him, "said Cuomo in a burst of rhetoric that he delivered to his fellow Democrats in the Senate.

Critics of the Amazon deal say that it will drive out locals from a neighboring neighborhood of Queens and is too generous with what they call social badistance companies. On Friday, they wondered if the governor's warning about Amazon was aimed at easing opposition to the incentives.

Before he stopped talking with Long Island 's business leaders, Cuomo also accused Democrats in the Senate of trying to charge more tax dollars to millionaires. According to him, the highest-paying 1% in New York pay nearly half of Albany's annual tax revenue.

"Bring mental health to the Senate," said Cuomo, adding that he would do "whatever he can" to put an end to the rising taxes of the rich.

Then, the surrogate mothers were able to continue shooting.

A Democratic Senate spokesman, Mike Murphy, said the legislators in the chamber had been diligent in seeking answers to the deal secretly pbaded with Amazon and that it was not necessary to find a solution. There had been no Democratic Senate position on this agreement.

With respect to the plan for raising taxes? "I do not know where the governor gets his" false news ", but the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, made it clear that we were not trying to raise taxes," he said. said Murphy.

This brought Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Cuomo, into the mix. He said that Stewart-Cousins ​​and his deputy, the senator of Queen Michael Gianaris, one of the most outspoken critics of the Amazon deal, had to "get on the same length".

The Cuomo official sent an e-mail to reporters saying that Gianaris had introduced a bill allowing New York City to impose a tax surtax on high-income taxpayers to help pay for the ruined improvements in the economy. metro of the city. Murphy, the spokesman for the Senate, then went on Twitter to say that the bill had existed for years and that it would not be approved.

"It is unfortunate that the governor is trying to divide the Democratic Party at this crucial and historic time," Murphy said.

The last battle between the Senate and the Democrats in the Senate has intensified this week after Stewart-Cousins ​​named Gianaris, the enemy of the transaction with Amazon, in a committee of States in charge of approving some of the financial incentives that the governor wishes to give to Amazon. This led a Cuomo spokeswoman to call Gianaris a "stunning" senator.

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