New Yorkers Still Want Amazon and are OK with Tax Incentives
New York voters want Amazon to deliver a Long Island City campus.
In a Quinnipiac survey of 1,216 New York voters, 64% support efforts to revive a plan where Amazon would build a second headquarters in Long Island City, a deal that abruptly fell through three months after Amazon chose LIC and encountered local opposition. When recently asked what they thought of the tax incentives Amazon would receive, 59% responded that the jobs provided by Amazon would have been worth the nearly $3 billion tax break. Even within NYC, 59% felt the tax incentives were worth the jobs. In a poll from December 2018, New Yorkers approved of Amazon's LIC campus by a 2-to-1 margin.
New Yorkers showed increasing dissatisfaction with how Gov. Cuomo is handling the MTA. In February 2018, Cuomo scored a 29% approval, but his numbers have now dropped to just 23% approval. Surprisingly, among NYC residents, who live with the MTA system, Cuomo managed a 27% approval, with the lowest support (18% approval) coming from upstate residents.
Not to be outdone, Donald Trump sunk to his lowest job approval ever seen among New Yorkers, with 28% approval and 68% disapproval, down from an all-time high of 36% approval in July 2018. Within New York City, only 17% approve of the way Trump is handling his job as President.
Support stayed flat when New Yorkers were asked about legalizing marijuana, with the same 65% support that was found in a January 2019 survey. The two most recent surveys hold the record for the highest approval of marijuana legalization, which Quinnipiac has posed as a survey question since February 2014, when it received 57% support. The current survey result came just days before Gov. Cuomo dropped his proposal to legalize marijuana from the state budget, holding out for possible legislative action later in 2019.
Congestion pricing received a one-point increase in support over that January survey, with 46% of voters now supporting a plan to fund the MTA by charging vehicles to enter Manhattan south of 61st Street. Within NYC, support is higher at 54% approval. Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio proposed a joint congestion pricing plan last month.
Read the full survey results at Quinnipiac University, including questions on state politicians, charter schools, and bail reform.
