> Most of these "deals" were put together secretly without input from the public. Millions (or in NY's case, billion+) of dollars were packaged and presented without community input or oversight
The letter specifically addresses this. That $3B was effectively a loan with massive ROI.
I think, based purely on the separation of concerns, it'd be good if states wouldn't finance loans to companies.
It's problematic, because it's hard for states to provide equal treatment (ever firm should be equal in the eyes of the law), states shouldn't be in the business of analyzing business plans and taking on risk.
That said, NY would have probably benefited from HQ2, though it's not that there's a lack of upward forces on the salaries of those jobs there, not to mention real estate.
"loan" is here a figure-of-speech, not an actual loan. It was a $3b tax incentive, where amazon would still be paying $27b in taxes over the same period.
The letter specifically addresses this. That $3B was effectively a loan with massive ROI.