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October 11, 2009
In East Rutherford, N.J., New Football Stadium, but at Whose Cost?
The New York Times
By Ken Belson
This is an interesting item on how sport facilities receive public subsidies. This is a case of the new Jets and Giants stadium being built in East Rutherford, N.J.
The stadium, which is scheduled to open next year, is in East Rutherford, and the borough naturally wants to collect taxes that any private business in its borders would have to pay. But the stadium sits on land owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority, a tax-exempt organization created by the state in 1971 to run the sporta arenas in the Meadowlands and elsewhere in New Jersey.
For years, the authority has collected rent from the teams to use its publicly owned stadium, and payments of $1.3 million a year in lieu of taxes. In turn, the authority has made payments to East Rutherford in lieu of taxes that cover the football stadium as well as the Izod Center and the Meadowlands Racetrack.
This year, the authority will pay the borough $5.97 million, which is equal to 21 percent of what the borough would have collected if the land were privately owned. The first annual payments of $466,000 started in 1977, the year after the sports complex opened, and have been renegotiated every decade or so.
Now, however, the Jets and the Giants are building their own stadium, team offices and practice facilities, most of them in East Rutherford. Because the buildings are privately owned, James Cassella, the mayor of East Rutherford, said the borough deserves more than what it has been receiving, a point he plans to make in negotiations with the authority.
“If the poor guy trying to run a dry cleaner and struggling to make ends meet pays taxes, should it be any different for a couple of millionaire owners?” Cassella said. “I’m just looking for our fair share.”
NoLandGrab: Why can't the Times find the space to take a close look at similar shenanigans here in Brooklyn? Once again, The Times demonstrates that is has an enormous blind spot when it comes to scrutinizing public subsidies for an arena in Brooklyn for the benefit of its business partner, Bruce Ratner.
Posted by steve at October 11, 2009 7:22 AM