Newark Is Making an Economic, and Moral, Case for an Amazon HQ

Amazon is on the hunt for a second headquarters, and cities around the country, from Tuscon to Frisco to Danbury, are competing to host it. 

"There is no other place in the country that Amazon should go but here," argued Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Monday. "Everything else is a cliche. Right? Brooklyn sounds like a cliche, so does Denver, it's all cliche-ish."

Whether the trash talk works or not, Newark is betting that something else will make Amazon listen: money.

Mayor Baraka, Gov. Chris Christie and Senator Cory Booker got together this week to announce Newark's bid for Amazon, and they made cash subsidies the centerpiece. Specifically, $7 billion in tax breaks. Which is a little more than ten times Newark's annual budget.

Another way to look at this: Amazon expects to spend $5 billion building this new headquarters, known as HQ2. So, if they choose Newark, their subsidy will be worth more than what they expect to actually spend constructing HQ2.

How is that supposed to be worth it for New Jersey? In a tweet, NJ Policy Perspective called this a "tax-breaks-or-bust strategy."

NJ's tax-breaks-or-bust strategy on #AmazonHQ2: at least $5B in state tax breaks + up to $1B in Newark tax abatements + no Newark wage tax

— NJPolicyPerspective (@NJPolicy) October 16, 2017

What's really striking is the show of unanimity around this. In addition to Mayor Baraka, Gov. Christie and Sen. Booker, the state's legislative leaders and both gubernatorial candidates, Phil Murphy and Kim Guadagno, have endorsed the plan.

And maybe the best pitch for Newark came from Sen. Booker yesterday, who put this in moral terms. By choosing Newark, he said, Amazon would demonstrate "that our inner city spaces are not places to be avoided, they are the undiscovered treasure."

WNYC's Ilya Marritz spoke with Richard Hake about where Newark, and New York City, stand in the race for HQ2 before the pitch deadline this Thursday.