Democrat politicians are mismanaging the New York economy

Jazz Shaw:

New York State managed to draw significant national media attention this week when Amazon decided to cancel its plan to open a new HQ in Queens. AOC, who apparently now runs the Democratic Party, immediately declared victory, having ensured that a caravan of tens of thousands of new, well-paying jobs wouldn’t invade the area. But as difficult as it may be to believe, that wasn’t the worst economic news New Yorkers had to face.

The less reported story had to do with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to save the upstate region by investing in “green technology” companies, presumably also bringing in a flood of jobs. It was known as “the Buffalo Billion,” and it literally pushed one billion dollars of taxpayer money into this effort. Panasonic and Tesla were involved in the development project, but now one of the chief engineers who help craft this scheme has been forced to admit the awful truth. The Buffalo Billion is now the Buffalo Bust. (NY Post)
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Three-quarters of the Buffalo Billion ($750 million) went to the solar panel company, formerly known as Solar City before Tesla absorbed it. The rest of the billion hasn’t produced much either, but this investment was the centerpiece of the effort. After years of work, a grand total of 700 jobs were created and many of those may be disappearing if the company seriously tanks. So the taxpayers wound up paying more than a million dollars each for some engineering and manufacturing jobs that may not last out the year.

This wasn’t just a case of poor planning or bad luck, by the way. We’ve discussed the cloud of corruption which has surrounded the Buffalo Billion from the beginning. Multiple people have now gone to jail and others are awaiting trial because so much of the money was steered to politically well-connected allies of the Governor while providing little to nothing in return. The entire thing has long since begun to look more like an organized crime racket more than any sort of economic stimulus program.
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This gives some pretty strong evidence of how screwed up the Green New Deal would be if it were implemented.  Alternative energy continues to be a poor investment which has cost this country billions with little return on investment.  It also demonstrates the poor business sense of Democrat politicians in New York from AOC to Gov. Cuomo.

Cuomo has been restricting drilling in Upstate New York for shale gas while across the border in Pennsylvania the state has prospered as has Texas with its shale wells.  Meantime he is investing state money in an alternative energy sinkhole and AOC is killing jobs from Amazon. 

I was always puzzled by the Amazon commitment to New York for their project.  Even without the tax abatements, the company would have been better of in Texas which has no state income tax to abate.  Amazon employees would have also been better off in Texas where housing is more affordable and energy is cheaper.