March 27, 2006
No taxes, please, we're Knickerbockers
A month ago I wondered whether Madison Square Garden, owner of the New York Knicks and Rangers, was planning to "pick up its $11-million-a-year property-tax exemption and carry it across the street" to its proposed new home inside the Farley post office. The answer, according to yesterday's Daily News, is "you betcha" - but deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff insists, "Our assumption is that taxes will be paid." (Unlike Doctoroff's position on every other team in New York, which surely has nothing to do with MSG's role in scuttling Doctoroff's proposed Jets stadium.)
Developer Stephen Ross, the former partner of Doctoroff's who's putting together the post office building deal, insists through spokesman Howard Rubenstein (who is also the mouthpiece for Yankees owner George Steinbrenner - in case you're wondering, no, this could not possibly get any more incestuous) that "the Madison Square Garden tax issue is a small component of an overall tax package. With the entire project, $75 million in new property taxes would be put on the city tax rolls." Except, of course, that it wouldn't be on the tax rolls at all, but rather would be siphoned off to pay for a subway line servicing Doctoroff's Hudson Yards development on the West Side.
Confused yet? Tune in next week to see if Deputy Dan is forced to cut off his own subway's nose to spite MSG's face. (If subways had noses, and faceless corporate media empires had faces.)
