May 26, 2005
Jets backers go to two-minute offense
With less than two weeks before the International Olympic Committee's bid evaluation commission issues its final report, backers of a new New York Jets stadium continue to turn up the heat on the two state legislators who are the main obstacles to the project's approval:
- A majority of the New York city council (28 of 51 members) signed on to a letter to state assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and state senate leader Joe Bruno urging them to vote for the $2.2 billion stadium plan, calling it "a terrific economic engine for New York - creating thousands of permanent and temporary jobs for New Yorkers and generating millions of dollars in revenue." (Uh, yeah right.) It's another sign that the council doesn't mind spending a few hundred million dollars to subsidize a Jets stadium, so long as they're the ones doing the spending, not the mayor.
- Gov. George Pataki's budget director sent Silver and Bruno an 11-page letter promising that "the $600 million cap on public investment will be protected," which would be more reassuring if the plan didn't already include another $400 million in property-tax breaks, subsidized land costs, and additional expenses that could drive the public cost well over $1 billion. A Bruno spokesperson replied that the Pataki letter raised more questions than it answered.
- Pataki and Mayor Mike Bloomberg unveiled $830 million in new spending on parks and other redevelopment in Silver's downtown Manhattan district. Silver, though, was unmoved: "It has nothing to do with his plea to spur job development or lure new business to lower Manhattan," said a spokesperson for the speaker, who's apparently dead-set on getting more tax breaks for developers into this deal.
Speaking of the city council, it has a hearing scheduled today on the other big New York sports project, Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn Nets arena proposal that would cost taxpayers at least $500 million. (Local arena opponents say the true figure is more than $1.5 billion.) We'll see if this hearing is any more enlightening than the last one.
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