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December 13, 2006
The missing half-billion: ESDC cuts projected AY tax revenue by nearly one-third
Atlantic Yards Report tries to figure out the mystery behind the incredible shrinking Atlantic Yards tax revenue figure:
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) didn't shine a light on it, but nearly half a billion dollars in projected public revenues just vanished.
The revised Atlantic Yards General Project Plan (GPP) issued last Friday by the ESDC contains one very significant change from the document released in July. Projected net new tax revenues have plummeted by $456 million. That's almost a one-third decline from the $1.4 billion figure announced five months ago.
That's much more than a rounding error. And it vastly outpaces other changes regarding Atlantic Yards. After all, since July, the project's cost went down 5% (from $4.2 billion to $4 billion), and its size declined 8% (from 8.659 million square feet to 7.961 million sf).
So how could the revenues drop so much? The change calls into question the ESDC's methods, and its candor, since no supporting study has been released.
It may be worse
Even as the agency has modified its revenue projections to $944.2 million over 30 years, it has yet to acknowledge the full impact of subsidies and public costs that could cut deeply into the overall net revenue.
In other words, there are hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer costs--for affordable housing, public safety, schools, and sanitation--that further offset the net revenue. And those costs have not been fully disclosed, nor factored into the ESDC's analysis.
Posted by lumi at December 13, 2006 9:10 AM