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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (1117592)	2/15/2019 12:13:21 AM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1577031

Is that like the 13,000 Foxconn people that won't have a job in Wisconsin, you idiot gullible dumbass???? Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn A huge tax break was supposed to create a manufacturing paradise, but interviews with 49 people familiar with the project depict a chaotic operation unlikely to ever employ 13,000 workers. By Austin Carr bloomberg.com

To: RetiredNow who wrote (1117592)	2/15/2019 1:54:29 AM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577031

This is the man who delivered the death blow to Amazon deal By Nolan Hicks and Carl Campanile February 14, 2019 \| 9:34pm \| Updated Michael GianarisPaul Martinka MORE ON: AMAZON Politicians aren't done targeting Amazon's NYC footprint Progressive lawmakers cheer Amazon's HQ2 reversal De Blasio's White House hopes at 'minus zero' after Amazon debacle Local business owners call Amazon pullout a 'nightmare' The watershed moment that led Amazon to reconsider coming to Queens came on Feb. 4 — when a fierce political foe was appointed to a state board with the power to thwart the project, said sources involved in the discussions. That was the day state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins nominated Sen. Michael Gianaris as her appointee to the obscure Public Authorities Control Board. Gianaris, who represents Long Island City, where Amazon was planning to build one of its new headquarters, bitterly opposed the $3 billion in subsidies offered by the city and state and was miffed that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio didn’t consult him on the deal, according to sources. Gianaris’ selection rattled the company. “Amazon saw it as a sign that the state Senate was against the deal. It put the deal over the cliff,” the insider said. A second source said, “That really shook them up. It had a chilling effect.” Three days later, Gianaris went on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” to demand the deal be scrapped and renegotiated. And the following day, the Washington Post — owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — reported that the e-tail giant was considering pulling out of the project. Cuomo warned that the threat was real. The company tried to reach out to Gianaris — but he rejected three invitations to meet, according to a source. Another high-profile Amazon opponent, Queens Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, had no such reservations and sat down with company officials. A “toxic relationship” between Cuomo and Gianaris contributed to Amazon’s woes, said the source. Gianaris has accused Cuomo of bolstering the now-dissolved Independent Democratic Conference, which for years helped Republicans maintain control of the Senate. Modal TriggerAndrew CuomoAPIncredibly, the two men never sat down once to discuss a possible compromise on Amazon. “It didn’t happen and it should have happened,” the source said. Still, Amazon’s stunning announcement Thursday caught just about everyone off guard. Just Wednesday, Cuomo arranged a meeting at his Manhattan office with four top Amazon executives and labor leaders to smooth over problems, since the company is non-union. Participants included Mario Cilento, head of the state AFL-CIO, Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, and George Miranda of Teamsters Joint Council 16. “I’m surprised they pulled out. It was a productive meeting,” Appelbaum told The Post on Thursday. “We all shook hands and agreed to follow up.” City officials met with high-ranking Amazon executives earlier in the week and got no hint of the shocking news to come, said a City Hall insider. De Blasio described himself as “flabbergasted” by the turn of events. “It doesn’t make any sense given everything that was done here,” he said during a trip to Harvard University. Other City Hall officials, too, were in disbelief. “We go through this to build a single homeless shelter,” an insider said of the opposition. “The notion that ‘we can’t take the heat so we’re leaving’ is embarrassing.” Additional reporting by Rich Calder

To: RetiredNow who wrote (1117592)	2/15/2019 2:02:16 AM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577031

OOPS! Amazon To Pay $0 In Federal Taxes In 2019: Report The tech giant reportedly used various tax breaks and credits to claim a $129 million rebate on $11 billion in profits last year. 02/14/2019 08:06 pm ET By Antonia Blumberg huffpost.com Amazon almost doubled its profits from $5.6 billion in 2017 to $11.2 billion in 2018, but the company isn’t expected to pay a cent in federal taxes this year, according to a new report. The Institute on Taxation and Economic policy released its findings Wednesday after examining the company’s corporate filings. Amazon reported a $129 million federal income tax rebate for 2018, equaling a tax rate of negative 1 percent. (The federal corporate income tax rate is 21 percent.) “The fine print of Amazon’s income tax disclosure shows that this achievement is partly due to various unspecified ‘tax credits’ as well as a tax break for executive stock options,” the report stated. This would be the second year in a row that the company has avoided paying federal taxes, despite being valued at a whopping $1 trillion. “When Congress in 2017 enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and substantially cut the statutory corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, proponents claimed the rate cut would incentivize better corporate citizenship,” the report continued. “However, the tax law failed to broaden the tax base or close a slew of tax loopholes that allow profitable companies to routinely avoid paying federal and state income taxes on almost half of their profits.” Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Contrary to claims by President Donald Trump that Amazon is a “no-tax” company, it actually does pay some taxes. In 2017, the company paid a combined total of $412 million in federal, state, local and foreign taxes. In 2015, it paid $273 million. Amazon charges consumers sales taxes in all 45 states where such taxes exist, plus Washington, D.C. But Amazon did appear to be on the hunt for tax breaks in 2017 and 2018 when it was shopping for a new location to house its second headquarters. City officials eager for Amazon’s attention offered up a slew of tax breaks and credits to lure the company. When it announced last year it would split the new headquarters between New York City and Arlington, Virginia, with an additional operations center in Nashville, Tennessee, Amazon was poised to collect billions in performance-based incentives between the three cities. Amazon on Thursday announced it was canceling plans for a New York City-based headquarters.