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August 20, 2009
What’s really crippling public authorities
NY Fiscal Watch
by Nicole Gelinas
Mayor Bloomberg and real estate interests are trying their darnedest to gut the Public Authorities reform bill that's been sitting on Governor Paterson's desk for some time now, claiming that legislation that would force state authorities to secure "market value" when selling land would have detrimental effects. The Manhattan Institute's Nicole Gelinas isn't having any of it.
But that’s actually one of the bill’s key selling points — and something that should stay in any future, better, public-authority reform bill.
To see what’s really crippling public authorities, look to the Atlantic Yards mess, chiefly the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s recent deal to sell valuable acres of land in Brooklyn to basketball-stadium and condo developer Bruce Ratner, the private-sector sponsor of the project, for the super-low upfront price of $20 million, down from an original $100 million.
The MTA will also allow Ratner to make an in-kind payment of construction work on MTA property that’s far inferior to the original work proposed.
The Atlantic Yards deal is one of those “economic-development/urban-planning” projects Anderson wants to protect — but the public purpose of the project is not actually clear.
What is clear is that the MTA, for political reasons (Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Paterson heavily support the Atlantic Yards project) is sacrificing a real public purpose: getting the most money it can get to fund its next multi-billion-dollar capital plan, which is far more important to the city’s private-sector economy than building some more empty condos is.
Posted by eric at August 20, 2009 5:27 PM