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December 23, 2006
Pataki, Ratner, Silver and Bruno: Crony Capitalism at its Worst
The Daily Gotham
Albany is broken and it is affecting Brooklyn. Albany is broken, and the approval of Ratner's get richer with government help scheme is a giant indication of how bad Albany has become.Shelly Silver, the only Democrat (until Eliot Spitzer takes over) in Albany’s infamous “room” where three men purportedly meet, has sided with Republican Joe Bruno (under investigation by the FBI) and Republican George Pataki to basically violate the basic principles of private property by evicting private property owners from their private property to benefit Pataki’s law school buddy, Bruce Ratner.
Let me rephrase and reiterate that: the NY State government is seizing private property to benefit a crony of the Governor’s. This is not good old-fashioned American free-market capitalism. This is not good government. This is not even good economics. This the odd hybrid economy of state-sponsored crony capitalism that Bush has championed since he moved from Texas to DC. Pataki, Bruno and Silver are helping to undermine one of the basic principles of the American economy: private property. They are wallowing in a culture of corruption that we have seen permeate the Republican party and, with Shelly Silver, seems to affect NY State Democrats as well.
The main beneficiary of this use of the government’s power of eviction is not the community, but an individual, Bruce Ratner. In exchange for the muscle of government and taxpayer (our) money behind him, Ratner has promised jobs, affordable housing, and tax revenues for the city. Problem is none of this is legally binding and we are asked to take on faith that Ratner will be good for Brooklyn the same way we have been asked to take on faith that what was good for Enron or Halliburton is good for America. But since when did office space and an arena generate good, long-term, union jobs and why is Ratner, whose record of job creation is non-existent, being trusted with this project? Most of the promised affordable housing doesn’t even match what is considered affordable in Manhattan and there is no guarantee that that housing will remain affordable. And, once again, why is Ratner, who has no record at all of creating affordable housing, being trusted with this project? And the tax revenue promises have already been scaled back considerably (by $500 million) before the first spade of earth is turned.
Posted by amy at December 23, 2006 12:05 PM