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November 15, 2005
The rich get all the breaks with Mike
NY Daily News
Juan Gonzalez
An alert reader brought this recent column on one of the myriad of ancillary topics in the Fight for the Heart of Brooklyn, Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTS). Mayor Bloomberg and Gifford Miller quietly landed a deal at the end of last month to award property tax breaks to developers who build in the Hudson Yards.
But those new tax breaks are "unwarranted and fiscally irresponsible," according to a report last week by the nonprofit Fiscal Policy Institute.
Tax breaks to major businesses have exploded under Bloomberg and are bound to get worse with the Hudson Yards project, said economist James Parrot.
Why we care: * PILOTS are planned for Ratner's Atlantic Yards program. * Bloomberg's corporate giveaway program shifts the tax burden to middle- and lower-income property owners for decades to come.
The bottom line is well-connected developers and large corporations get big breaks for the privelege of not moving to NJ, and the rest of us are shouldered with the burden through increased property taxes and rents.
Posted by lumi at November 15, 2005 6:19 AM