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July 20, 2007
Home field advantage
Report: Pols bat for Yanks
MetroNY
By Patrick Arden
Though Mayor Bloomberg told everyone (and the media believed him) that George Steinbrenner would be "footing the bill” for the new Yankee Stadium, the public pricetag just went up.
But taxpayers are subsidizing the Yankees’ new $1.3 billion stadium project with direct payments and tax breaks worth more than $663.5 million, according to a new report released today by the watchdog group Good Jobs New York. This puts the deal in the same league as former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s reviled offer to go “halfsies” on a ballpark in Manhattan.
The new numbers are backed up by the city’s Independent Budget Office, which yesterday increased its estimate for the benefits gleaned from city financing of the stadium with $920 million in tax-exempt bonds, a skirting of a 1986 law that required an IRS waiver.
The report documents how the team hired former public officials — and induced current ones — to work for the project.
NoLandGrab: Though the article isn't specifically about Atlantic Yards, long-time readers will remember that at the official unveiling of Bruce Ratner's controversial project, Bloomberg also claimed that Ratner would have to pay for the arena himself.
In addition, the City's direct cash contribution for Atlantic Yards has already increased two-fold, with no end in site, since the City has agreed to foot the bill for any "extraordinary infrastructure costs."
Between Bloomberg's track record on getting team owners to "foot the bill" and the increasing public costs for Atlantic Yards, it's amazing that anyone takes the original announcements at face value. And if the public tab is nearly $700 million when the team "foots the bill," what might that mean for taxpayers who are on the hook for "extraordinary infrastructure costs?"
Posted by lumi at July 20, 2007 9:04 AM