November 05, 2004
Keeping the Jets balls in the air
As promised, New York's Empire State Development Corporation issued its official plan for the proposed $1.4 billion Jets stadium in Manhattan; as probably should have been anticipated given the previous paper trail, it's a Rube Goldberg scheme of subleases and payments in lieu of taxes that could break new ground in end runs around legislative approval.
Here's the basics of the plan, as ferreted out with the help of Good Jobs New York analyst Stephanie Greenwood. The Jets would fund $800 million worth of the project, $150 million via a G-3 "loan" from the NFL (really more of a grant, since it can be "repaid" with visiting teams' share of luxury-seat sales), and another $400 million through tax-exempt bonds that would be paid off by the team via property-tax PILOTs, using a tax-law dodge first described here in July. As for the remaining $600 million, this would still be split between the city and state, but with a catch: If the state legislature fails to authorize its $300 million, it would be up to the city to cover the entire tab.
The city's tabloids immediately jumped on this as the big news of the day, with the Daily News proclaiming "City poised to give Jets 300M more" while the New York Post warned, "City Tab For Jets' Stadium Could Double." According to those who've read the fine print, though, the headlines missed the real story: The state is promising to find other, back-door ways of reimbursing the city in this instance - say, increased state payments toward city transit costs - that wouldn't require legislative approval, in effect conducting yet another end run around public oversight. As Richard Gottfried, the state assemblymember who represents the proposed stadium site, told the New York Sun: "This is an outrage. Even if the Legislature refuses to support the plan, the governor intends to use some kind of three-card monte so the city picks up the state's share of the plan."
After several months of inactivity, the Jets stadium plan - and the greater multi-billion-dollar Hudson Yards redevelopment project that it's a part of - appears ready to kick into high gear again. Earlier this week, the New York Times' Charles Bagli laid out a rough timetable for the stadium approval process:
- A final environmental report on Hudson Yards by the city planning commission next week, to be followed by city council hearings beginning in December. The council is required by city law to vote on the plan's zoning changes in January.
- The ESDC, meanwhile, will hold a single public hearing on its plan in early December, followed by a 30-day comment period, before granting final approval in January.
- As for when either the state legislature or the city council will actually vote on funding for the project - in addition to the enduring mystery of where the $600 million in stadium funds will come from, the city still has a $350 million hole in its budget for expanding the adjoining Javits Convention Center - that's anyone's guess. Bagli does speculate that the legislature could begin talks on its share of the convention center expansion later this month.
