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October 26, 2006
News Analysis: ESDC Gives It Up
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Norman Oder
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) is passing off a seven-page memo as the complete independent economic analysis of the Atlantic Yards. What did the document leave out and why does it matter?
Does the Empire have any clothes? That's the question after the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) last week belatedly released data aiming to back its claim that the Atlantic Yards project would bring $1.4 billion in new tax revenues to the city and state.
But the ESDC findings, expressed in a seven-page memo, confirmed what critics and opponents suspected: the state agency omitted significant costs and subsidies for the project, such as those for schools, sanitation, public safety, and affordable housing.
...
Brooklyn Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who had asked for a range of financial data from the ESDC and other agencies, called it "a skeleton projection of state and local tax revenue." Indeed, Brennan's request for the project's "business plan" - the estimate of overall costs and revenues - was rebuffed by the ESDC.
Posted by lumi at October 26, 2006 11:00 PM