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July 15, 2004

Jets stadium to cost some damn big number

Critics of the New York Jets' Manhattan stadium plan held a press conference on the steps of City Hall this afternoon, to call attention to the possibility, as raised here last week, that the team could be seeking to pay for part of its "private" share of stadium costs with public tax dollars. Holding an oversized check marked "$600 million," which was crossed out and had written in "$1.2 billion," which was in turn crossed out and marked "Whatever," state assemblyperson Richard Gottfried noted that if the Jets use tax-exempt bonds backed by PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes), as they were reported to be considering last week, "of their $800 million, three-quarters of it is going to be paid back by city funds. So it's at most $200 million from the Jets, and $1.2 billion from state and city taxpayers."

At a competing press conference held immediately beforehand on the City Hall steps, however, Jets president and stadium czar Jay Cross insisted that the team was not actively seeking tax-exempt financing, saying they would take the lead from the city and state. The city and state, in turn, both referred calls seeking clarification to the Jets; the team referred all questions back to Cross' previous statements.

The mere fact that no one in city or state government seems willing to clarify who's going to pay for the stadium or how was especially galling to those at today press conference, with state senator Liz Krueger calling it an "atrocious lack of transparency." Added Krueger, the ranking Democrat on the state senate's housing committee:

"We are desperately trying to get $50 million more in bonding authority for affordable and low-income housing. And we are told we can't do that because we're bonding out too many other projects. We are trying to get additional money for capital construction of schools in New York City. And we are told that we don't have the money."

One more data point that John Avlon is on crack.

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