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November 7, 2008
City balks over Yankee Stadium documents
MetroNY
By Patrick Arden
Where there's smoke there's fire:
The Bloomberg administration is refusing to hand over documents requested by a Congressional subcommittee investigating how the city secured tax-exempt financing for the new Yankee Stadium. U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has claimed the probe discovered “substantial evidence of improprieties and possible fraud.”
NoLandGrab: The possible fraud lies in the fact that the City claimed a ridiculously high land value in order to justify the bond financing, but lowballed the land value in order to skimp on the replacement of the park land to the commmunity.
Aside from the fact that the deal may have cheated the federal government of future tax revenue, note that the high land valuation benefits the Yankees and the low land valuation cheats the community.
Is this why we need this Mayor more than ever to steer the City through these tough financial times?
Looking ahead, expect creative justifications for extraordinarily high valuations for the tax-exempt bond financing for Bruce Ratner's arena.
Posted by lumi at November 7, 2008 4:23 AM