New York Daily News - Business - Bill Hammond: Top microchip biz gets $1B richer - & you get the bill
    Memo to the taxpayers of New York State

    Date: June 27, 2006

    From: Hector Ruiz, chairman and CEO, Advanced Micro Devices

    Re: Christmas in June

    On behalf of everyone here at AMD, one of the world’s leading computer chip makers, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to you, the people of New York, for your generous gift of $1.2 billion.

    Gov. Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno gave me the great news last week - not long before they told you, I guess (oops!) - and I haven’t been able to stop grinning since: You, the working stiffs of New York State, are going to help us, a wealthy mega-corporation, buy a shiny new factory.

    If someone had said to me that average New Yorkers - the cab drivers, the home health aides, the bodega clerks - would chip in part of their hard-earned paychecks to help us millionaires get even richer, I never would have believed it.

    I keep pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.

    But it’s true. The Legislature approved it last Friday, a few hours after the big press conference in Albany. You’re going to give us $650 million in outright grants, $280 million to pay for improved roads and utilities and $250 million in tax breaks. That adds up to $1.2 billion, or a whopping $1 million a pop for the 1,200 people we plan to hire.

    I’m told it’s the biggest corporate welfare deal in New York history, and maybe one of the biggest in the country. It’s an honor to be on the receiving end of such incredible generosity.

    After all, AMD is the second-largest microprocessor manufacturer in the world. In the first quarter of this year alone, we raked in $1.3 billion in revenue and turned a profit of $185 million. We could easily afford to build this plant on our own. But we’re more than happy to accept your money. Even at a company as big and successful as ours, an extra billion never hurts.

    They say New York has declined from the days when it was known as the Empire State, but you guys still play in the big leagues when it comes to throwing cash around. People all over the world were trying to bribe us to locate in places like Asia and Europe, but your elected representatives out-bribed them all. I’ve never seen anyone spend other people’s money the way Pataki, Silver and Bruno do.

    Of course, AMD wouldn’t have even considered moving to New York if they hadn’t cut a very fat check. With your sky-high taxes, expensive energy costs and burdensome regulations, I don’t know how businesses that live without subsidies make any money at all. I’m not surprised to hear that a lot of them are fleeing the state. The fact that New York chooses to give its money away to us, rather than trying to improve the economic climate for everyone, makes me feel especially lucky.

    I understand that Pataki, Bruno and Silver are hoping that AMD’s investment in Saratoga County - which, by coincidence, happens to be in Bruno’s district - will transform the upstate economy from Appalachia North to Silicon Valley East. That could mean having to dangle incentives for other high-tech companies to build factories, which could get expensive. Good luck with that.

    In the meantime, thanks again. Next time we set a new profit record, I’ll look up from counting my money, think of you, the taxpayers of New York, and smile.

What a deal we got, eh…..