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January 7, 2009
News Round-up: Evil Empire Edition
We're having a hard time deciding if the Evil Empire is the one in Yankee Stadium or the one in City Hall (probably both), but there's plenty of news today about how they're once again teaming up to stick it to the taxpayers.
It's not every day that we can say that the voluminous Norman Oder has posted a digest version of the news, but in this case, he's summarized the key stories, which are also linked in their entirety below.
Atlantic Yards Report, Documents emerge about stadium subsidies; mayoral candidates shy away from criticism
The big news in today's papers is that, as the New York Times reports, in an article headlined City Gives Up Its Stadium Suite in Exchange for Cash: After intense criticism, the Bloomberg administration has given up a perk it worked fervently to secure: a free luxury suite at the new Yankee Stadium.
But lower down in the article there's a hint at the larger story:
“Does the Bloomberg administration really think that giving up a suite at Yankee Stadium is going to soften the blow that this project has had on city taxpayers?” said Bettina Damiani, director of Good Jobs New York....Indeed, though Rep. Anthony Weiner, a stated mayoral candidate, criticizes the suite deal in the Times, Tom Robbins in the Village Voice points out that both Weiner and Comptroller William Thompson, a fellow candidate, are unwilling to criticize the larger question of taxpayer funds supporting the stadium via tax-exempt bonds.
If they're unwilling to raise that issue, it's unlikely they'd look closely at a similar funding scheme for the planned Atlantic Yards arena. The main critic of the stadium deals is Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.
The Village Voice, Mayor Mike and the Yanks: How Suite It Is
Tom Robbins's story, sub-headed City Hall gift-wraps another present for baseball's richest team, is a must-read for those of you interested in what a colossal screwing of the public looks like.
The 2009 mayoral campaign begins this month when the richest sports franchise in America puts its hand out for one more bailout. The New York Yankees—strike that—Yankee Global Enterprises LLC, the mega-corporation that controls all things Yankee, has already received $942 million in triple tax-free bonds courtesy of the Bloomberg regime to build its fabulous new stadium on city land where a wonderful tree-shaded park once stood near the Harlem River.
The mayor's people are spending most of their time these days ordering the closing of day-care centers and firehouses, insisting that the terrible economic situation dictates no other course. But on January 16, Bloomberg's team will pause from these chores to order its representatives on the city's Industrial Development Agency to approve another $370 million in tax-free bonds to finish the stadium project. According to the city's Independent Budget Office, this new round of financing will cost taxpayers roughly $48.5 million in foregone revenues. This is on top of the $181 million the team saved by having the taxes excused on its first round of financing.
The New York Times, City Trades Its Yankee Stadium Suite for Cash
Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky appears to be the only politician in the entire state willing to raise questions about the propriety of spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of public dollars on new ballparks.
Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, who had sought details about the deals the city was making, described the city’s about-face over its use of the suites as “a terrible embarrassment.”
“The taxpayers who are paying for the construction of Yankee Stadium cannot afford to buy tickets for the games, but the mayor was getting a luxury box, so he had to back off,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
“But the reason he backed off,” Mr. Brodsky speculated, “is because next week, the city is going to give the Yankees more taxpayer money.”
On Jan. 15, the Industrial Development Agency will hold a hearing over a recent request by the Yankees and the Mets for about $400 million in municipal bonds and other money to pay for the final construction stages at their stadiums. In 2006, both teams received about $1.5 billion in bonds and subsidies to help them build the ball parks.
Runnin' Scared [Village Voice blog], City Releases 116-Page Obfuscation of Stadium Deals
Neil deMause tries to peer through the NYC Industrial Development Agency's smokescreen.
Amid today's hoopla over the Bloomberg administration's decision to give back its free luxury boxes at the Mets' and Yanks' new stadiums - about which it's probably best said that the city decided that partying it up in a suite while the great unwashed paid through the nose for tickets didn't look so hot, so instead chose to take the value on a gift certificate - there was another development in New York's ongoing baseball stadium melodrama. This afternoon, the city Industrial Development Agency also released its cost-benefit documents for the $342 million in new tax-exempt bonds the teams are requesting from the city, in advance of a public hearing on January 15 to decide the bonds' fate.
Covering 116 pages, the paperwork -- released at 5:49 pm, the traditional time to dump documents on an unsuspecting press corps, knowing that few will have time to read them let alone track anyone down for comment -- goes into mind-numbing detail on just what gewgaws the teams would be using the money for: For the Yanks, such items as $38,608,134 for "Counter Terrorism Structure Hardening" and $4,750.000 for "Perforated Metal Mesh Panels Upgrades"; for the Mets, "Structural hardening and upgrade perimeter security" and "Modification of office and rotunda flooring material" (no price breakdowns provided).
Newsday, Bloomberg backs off ballpark suite deals for city
"Other cities get boxes and through our negotiations we made sure New York got no less, but we've decided to take the value in cash payments to return it to the community," said mayor's spokesman Andrew Brent.
NoLandGrab: In this case, "New York" = "the Mayor and his chief lackeys." The Bloomberg administration's magnanimity appears to know no bounds.
Metro NY, City drops luxe box at Yankee Stadium
The city is giving up the perk just one week before it decides whether to give hundreds of millions more in tax-free financing to both teams during a budget crisis.
Posted by eric at January 7, 2009 10:03 AM