New Yorkers deserve answers about Amazon’s plans

Each day’s leak about the secret Amazon deal raises new doubts. New Yorkers need to know what’s being offered in their name.

In pursuit of the world’s wealthiest corporation, how much will Gov. Andrew Cuomo add to his highest-in-the-nation $8-billion-a-year in “economic development” bribes?

Crain’s reports that Cuomo’s package includes using the state’s administrative muscle to bypass the city’s lengthy planning process (and a City Council opponent) to rezone a 20-acre site in Long Island City.

It’s been done before, for megaprojects like the Barclays Center, and we get that Amazon wants to avoid being blackmailed by a host of local politicians. But there’s a fundamental injustice in only big players getting to dodge that racket.

Then, too: The Real Deal notes Amazon may score $1 billion from a single state tax break. The Relocation and Employment Assistance Program offers $3,000 per employee for 12 years, and we’re talking 25,000 workers.

How much more is at stake? No one knows. “It is symptomatic of the larger problem with Cuomo’s economic-development deals,” said Riley Edwards of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Indeed, it’s standard Cuomo operating procedure: The new Tappan Zee Bridge is open (and renamed), and New Yorkers still don’t know how they’re paying for it. When do they find out what welfare they’re offering for an $800 billion company?

State Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) complains the whole process is “completely backwards.” As he told The Post, “There’s no discussion of what Amazon is going to do to help the city they want to set up shop in.”

Don’t get us wrong: We’d love to see Amazon come to town — but not without knowing the price before the deal is done.

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