--- title: AOC Celebrated Amazon's Pullout; Cuomo Said It Cost 25K Jobs description: The spat between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gov. Andrew Cuomo lays bare a growing divide over Amazon's decision to pull out of New York City. canonical: https://time.com/5530386/aoc-amazon-new-york-hq2/ author: Billy Perrigo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-17T21:03:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:46:54.598Z article:section: Politics og:title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Celebrated Amazon Pulling Out of New York––But the Governor Says It Cost the City 25,000 Jobs og:description: The spat lays bare a growing divide ahead of presidential primaries over corporate ties og:url: https://time.com/5530386/aoc-amazon-new-york-hq2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedd7d889820ae27d/69894535656a3f750abd6a41/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-amazon.jpeg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Women's March 2019 - New York City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Celebrated Amazon Pulling Out of New York––But the Governor Says It Cost the City 25,000 Jobs twitter:description: The spat lays bare a growing divide ahead of presidential primaries over corporate ties twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltedd7d889820ae27d/69894535656a3f750abd6a41/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-amazon.jpeg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Celebrated Amazon Pulling Out of New York––But the Governor Says It Cost the City 25,000 Jobs > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent Feb 17, 2019 9:03 PM UTC  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 14th district Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends Women's March 2019 on January 19, 2019. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 14th district Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends Women's March 2019 on January 19, 2019. John Lamparski—Getty Images  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent Feb 17, 2019 9:03 PM UTC Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared victory when Amazon announced Thursday that it would [not build a second headquarters](http://time.com/5529733/amazon-new-york-headquarters-hq2-cancelled/) (known as HQ2) in Queens, New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it a [“lost economic opportunity”](https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/statement-governor-andrew-m-cuomo-196) and blamed “a small group \[of\] politicians \[who\] put their own narrow political interests above their community.” The dispute between the two Democrats lays bare a divide over the plan to offer $2.8 billion in tax breaks for Amazon to establish a major presence in New York City. On one side, old hands like Cuomo; on the other, the newly insurgent, left-leaning wing represented by [Ocasio-Cortez](http://time.com/5509391/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-stephen-colbert-social-media/). “Today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers and their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation and the power of the richest man in the world,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. The new development would have been in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, near Ocasio-Cortez’s district. The outspoken freshman Congresswoman was a critic of the deal Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio had brokered with Amazon. Cuomo and other supporters of the project said that Amazon would have brought more than enough investment to the city to justify the tax breaks, and would have established New York as a tech hub to rival other hubs like San Francisco. Additionally, he said, HQ2 would have brought “at least 25,000-40,000 good paying jobs for our state and nearly $30 billion dollars in new revenue to fund transit improvements, new housing, schools and countless other quality-of-life improvements.” However, Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter questioned the validity of the jobs figure and [pointed to a report](https://itep.org/amazon-in-its-prime-doubles-profits-pays-0-in-federal-income-taxes/) that Amazon will pay zero federal income tax in 2018, despite $11 billion in profits. “$0 for schools. $0 for firefighters. $0 for infrastructure. $0 for research and healthcare,” she tweeted Thursday. “Why should corporations that contribute nothing to the pot be in a position to take billions from the public?” > [](https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1096194174301495296) In Amazon’s search for a city to host HQ2, the company invited city boards to put forward bids, which Ocasio-Cortez and others criticized as a means for the company to secure the largest tax breaks possible. Ocasio-Cortez was elected to Congress for the first time in last year’s midterm elections. The following week, Amazon announced that New York and Arlington, Va., were the winners of its much-hyped HQ2 search competition. Immediately, the congresswoman-elect stated her opposition to the proposal. “Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here,” [she said on Twitter](https://twitter.com/aoc/status/1062204614496403457) last November. “It’s possible to establish economic partnerships \[with\] real opportunities for working families, instead of a race-to-the-bottom competition.” Amazon has said it will continue to hire extra workers in New York despite walking back its HQ2 plans. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5530386/aoc-amazon-new-york-hq2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5530386/aoc-amazon-new-york-hq2/"},"headline":"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Celebrated Amazon Pulling Out of New York––But the Governor Says It Cost the City 25,000 Jobs","datePublished":"2019-02-17T21:03:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:46:54.598Z","description":"The spat between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gov. 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