When Amazon announced it would pull out of its HQ2 project in Long Island City due to local opposition, many were shocked. How could local residents oppose a deal that would generate 25,000 jobs and $27 billion in tax revenues for a relatively meager $3 billion in tax breaks? It just seemed illogical and bizarre.
Yet look closer and the concerns do not appear to be completely unfounded. You only have to look at the recent situation with Foxconn in Wisconsin, where massive tax breaks led not to prosperity, but to a string of broken promises, to see the perils. While the Amazon deal was vastly different, the pitfalls of these kind of transactions is very real.
