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November 2, 2009
The "modern blueprint," fungible money, and why taxpayers are helping bail out ACORN and fund the AY CBA
Atlantic Yards Report
"Money is fungible, Judge Robert Smith declared during the oral argument on the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case October 14 at the Court of Appeals in Albany.
His point was that $100 million in state subsidies for arena infrastructure made it easier for Forest City Ratner to build the rest of the project.
...
Money is fungible.That's why the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signatories were in Albany, proxies for the project and better for p.r. than a Forest City Ratner executive.
They were shepherded by a public relations representative from The Terrie Williams Agency--which has represented CBA signatories off and on since 2005. (As I wrote in October 2005, BUILD's James Caldwell told the New York Observer he didn't know who was paying for the agency that was representing his group.)
Forest City Ratner is spending a couple of million dollars on the CBA, first on direct payments to organizations with no other visible means of support.
A few of the eight organizations do have a track record before Atlantic Yards, but the most prominent, ACORN, lost support in the wake of an embezzlement scandal, and FCR stepped in last December with a $1.5 million grant/loan package. (So much for the "modern blueprint" the Times discerned four years ago, as noted below.)
Who paid for that?
We did. Money is fungible.
Well, of course, we didn't pay for it directly or necessarily in full, and it's not on the books. However, public dollars--some $305 million in direct subsidies, plus tax breaks, below-market land, and more--have given Forest City Ratner the flexibility to shift money around.
Posted by lumi at November 2, 2009 4:55 AM