September 16, 2008
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my Yankees
With Yankee Stadium's final game just five days away, everyone's suddenly getting in the game of figuring out why, and how much replacing it is going to cost taxpayers.
Assemblymember Richard Brodsky, who this summer held hearings into the Yanks' request for additional tax-exempt bonds, issued a report today entitled "The House That You Built: An Interim Report into Public Financial Assistance for the New Yankee Stadium." Its findings, according to the Legislative Gazette:
According to summary of the report released by Brodsky's office, there has been an estimated $550 million to $850 million dollars of taxpayers investment into the stadium project. The money, according to an August 2006 press release issued by New York City and cited in Brodsky's report, was supposed to have created "nearly 6,500 construction jobs and result in about 1,000 permanent jobs," But, according to the report, it has resulted in the creation of only 15 new permanent jobs.
The committee's investigation also found that the city manipulated the assessed value of the stadium in order to meet the requirements for an IRS tax exemption.
The investigation also showed that promises to the IRS, the National Park Service and state officials were broken, the city neglected to protect the public from excessive ticket price increases by the Yankees, and it is possible that New York City IDA failed to assure public benefits from the enormous taxpayer investment and may have violated the law in its creation of massive public debt.
In other words, nothing that hasn't been reported here and elsewhere already, but it's always good to have it confirmed by another source. I haven't gotten the report myself yet, but will report here once I do if there are any interesting tidbits in it.
Meanwhile, the New York Times has a long story today on the free luxury suite that the city of New York is getting at the new stadium it's helping build for the Yanks. (The print version is actually even longer, and includes a quote from yours truly: "Is [city council speaker] Chris Quinn going to be able to hand out tickets to people who vote the way she likes?") Key section:
It is still unclear where the luxury suites will be located, how the perks will be distributed, and whether any public records will be kept of who uses them.
Besides the free suites, the city will be allowed to buy up to 145 tickets to every Mets home game and up to 180 to every Yankees home game. (For these, the city will pay face value but will be able to reserve its tickets at least a day before they go on sale to the public.)
City development chief Seth Pinsky responded, "Why is that relevant?" pointing out that it's not unusual for cities to get similar perks as part of stadium deals. (It's also not unusual for elected officials to come under fire for it.) Pinsky is schedule to appear at Thursday's Congressional hearing on the Yankees stadium, where I'm sure he'll be informed in no uncertain terms why this is considered relevant.
—Neil deMause
