Amazon to get $124M tax break to build NY warehouse: report

Amazon is poised to receive a tax break totaling $124 million in exchange for the retail goliath’s pledge to build a warehouse near Buffalo, NY, according to a report.

The tax subsidy is considered one of the largest ever received by the Seattle-based e-commerce giant.

The state-run Niagara County Industrial Development Agency is looking to entice Amazon to construct a $550 million, 216-acre warehouse that would employ 300 people in temporary construction jobs and more than 1,000 workers in permanent warehouse positions, according to The Times Union of Albany .

The Post has reached out to the NCIDA and Amazon seeking comment.

The tax subsidy will be paid for in large part from revenue earmarked for the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District.

The district derives nearly half of its revenue from local property taxes.

Labor unions and corporate watchdogs banded together to declare their opposition to the deal, which they say will drive up the cost of living.

“A deal that doesn’t at least require one of the largest, richest corporations in the world to pay for community benefits, livable wages, and to mitigate clear environmental impacts, is no deal at all,” they wrote in a letter to the NCIDA.

Organized labor officials demanded that the deal be contingent on Amazon agreeing to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the workers that will be employed at the warehouse, according to the Times Union. But Amazon refused, it was reported.

Local officials and Amazon have been negotiating quietly for two years to bring the deal to fruition. Critics charge that the public has not had a chance to weigh in on the agreement, which was largely kept under wraps.

Opponents also cite a similar deal that local officials struck with Amazon to build a warehouse in nearby Hamburg.

Despite the fact that Amazon received $7 million in tax breaks to build the 181,500-square-foot building whose construction was completed in March, the facility remains empty, according to The Buffalo News.

Amazon’s massive expansion, which has been made possible by tax breaks and subsidies from local governments in states like Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, is controversial.

Supporters of the government incentives say it is necessary to entice companies like Amazon in order to create jobs. But critics respond that Amazon’s entry into the local marketplace devastates local retailers while driving up the cost of living.

In 2018, Amazon announced plans to construct a massive, second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens. The campus was slated to house office space for some 25,000 full-time employees.

But progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), galvanized by reports of generous tax breaks and subsidies from the city and state, roused public opposition to the move — prompting Amazon to instead opt to build the site in Virginia.