Opposition to Taxbreaks for Ratner: Letitia James and David Yassky Team Up

Seems Councilmembers Letitia James and David Yassky are teaming up to oppose the massive tax giveaways to developer Bruce Ratner. Here's the press release:

[Councilmembers] Yassky and James to Proposed Atlantic Yards Amendment to MSG Tax Resolution

Today at the Finance Committee hearing, the committee will review and vote on Proposed Resolution 90, which asks the State of New York to end the twenty-year-old property tax exemption for Madison Square Garden. If the Council thinks subsidizing MSG is a bad deal fort the City and State, they should take another look at the tax breaks and subsidies being offered to the proposed Atlantic Yards Development: they are even worse.

Council Members Yassky and James will introduce an amendment to Res. 90 that includes language condemning public financing of the Atlantic Yards Development, and asking for these breaks and subsidies to be withheld. The arena component alone is slated to receive hundreds of millions in public funds: $100 million from both the City and State, as well as roughly $500 million in effective property tax exemption, and another $100 million saved from the issuance of tax-free bonds to finance the arena. These numbers do not include additional hundreds of millions of dollars that will go towards the residential and commercial components of the project.

The money slated for the Atlantic Yards Development has not yet been paid—the City and State have a unique and
important opportunity to keep it that way. Council Members James and Yassky are working to keep the issue in the pubic eye, and force a REAL review of these funds.

Where: City Hall Committee Room

When: Wednesday, January 30, 11:00

Any other Councilmembers upset about the massive amounts of OUR money that is being given to Bruce Ratner?

http://dailygotham.com/blog/mole333/opposition_to_taxbreaks_for_ratner_letitia_james_and_david_yassky_team_up
Mouse over the text to select it, then press Ctrl-C to copy it.
0
mole333's picture



Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Travis's picture

Bravo! . Council Members James and Yassky

Finally.

Especially with Bloomberg's recent fiscal whine on how's he's once again simply forced to cut services.

Now if only Christine Quinn would say something about the same kind of subsidies bleeding us through other luxury developments like on the Hudson West Side in Chelsea or the ridiculous amount of money and land given to the billionaire ball club for the new (smaller) Yankee Stadium or any number of similar private redecorating projects for millionaires.

Not yet rated.

Current weather

NY - New York City, Central Park

Clear sky
  • Clear sky
  • Temperature: 78.8 °F
  • Wind: Variable, 4.6 mph
  • Pressure: 29.93 inHg
  • Rel. Humidity: 54%
  • Visibility: 10 miles
Reported on:
Fri, 03/09/2010 - 1:51am

Upcoming events

  • No upcoming events available

In keeping with the "city that never sleeps" tradition, keep up to date with our daily syndication digest.



Powered by FeedBlitz

The Publisher
Liza Sabater

Fresh dissent served daily
culturekitchen

Grassroots News and
Activism for New Yorkers

Daily Gotham

Feminist Bloggers Network
BlogSheroes

A new kind of voyeurism
Voogling

Art + Code + Philosophy
Potatoland.blog

Got any dirt, tips, leads or money for us? Then drop us a line or two at editors [at] dailygotham [dot] com or use our general contact form to reach everybody in the editorial team ASAP.

User login