Cuomo: Senate Democrats Are ‘Playing Politics’ With Amazon

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says fellow Democrats in the state Senate are “playing politics” by nominating a critic of subsidies for Amazon’s planned campus in Queens to a state board with the power to derail the project.

Cuomo says Tuesday that he hasn’t decided if he will reject the nomination of Sen. Michael Gianaris, of Queens, to the obscure Public Authorities Control Board. Cuomo must approve the board’s five members, who each have the power to block state subsidies.

Cuomo says Democratic senators will have to answer to their voters if their opposition kills the Amazon project and the more than 25,000 jobs it promises.

Gianaris says concerns about Amazon receiving billions of dollars in tax credits and other subsidies are valid and that Cuomo’s administration is acting like “petulant children.”