Unpacking Amazon's Incentives in New York

You've heard the big news: Amazon is coming to Queens, opening a new office for an estimated 25,000 workers in Long Island City.

And in return for doing that, New York State and state have promised some serious subsidies and incentives to the company: as much as $3 billion. But what does that money get the city? And what strings are attached? 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said taxpayers will get a nine-to-one return on investment in the deal.

But David Friedfel, Director of State Studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, told Jami Floyd it's quite hard to make that kind of estimate at this point in the project.

"I'm always trepidatious when I hear numbers regarding return on investment, certainly when they're calculated at this early stage," he said on All Things Considered. "To use them as a justification for spending billions of dollars — it adds additional layers of things to think about."

He spoke with WNYC about what we know of the details of the money involved in the Amazon deal in New York. To hear the full interview, click "Listen."