What is it with Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and Yankee Stadium, anyway?
Brodsky will haul Yankees President Randy Levine and city Industrial Development Agency head Seth Pinsky before a pointless show trial today – the better to impeach one of the Bloomberg administration’s more commonsensical development deals.
The lawmaker has subpoenaed Levine and Pinsky as part of an “inquiry into the circumstances” of a Yankees request for $372 million in additional tax-exempt bonds to finish its new stadium – now a-building in The Bronx.
But New Yorkers might be better served inquiring into Brodsky’s motives – for using state resources in a self-promotional crusade to mislead and deceive. They might start by asking:
* Why does Brodsky insist on lying – outright – about the cost of the stadium? He says it’s $4 billion (up from his nonsensical claim of $2 billion, issued just last week). In fact, the actual total tab will be just $1.3 billion.
* Why does Brodsky want taxpayers to think they’ll be picking up the costs? In fact, the Yanks will cover every last cent of that $1.3 billion, plus the costs of ongoing maintenance – even though the city will wind up owning the ballpark.
* Why has Brodsky voted repeatedly to back stadium-related legislation, while voting also to promote gambling interests, including “ayes” for tax incentives for Monticello Raceway and a $140 million cashbailout for the scandal-wracked New York Racing Association?
Hypocrisy, anyone?
Let’s be clear: Richard Brodsky is a suburban ham-and-egger who sought desperately to step up to state attorney general two years ago, but couldn’t make the cut.
So maybe some big, fat lies will help keep his name out there – and maybe electoral lightning will strike next time.
“When we’re broke, and we can’t fund the MTA, and we can’t fund schools,” Brodsky harrumphed last week, for taxpayers “to give the Yankees another $400 million [on top of $940 million already approved] is bizarre.”
Where to begin?
Nobody is asking taxpayers to hand the Yankees $400 mill.
Nor even to lend them that much.
Yes, the extra tax-exempt bonds will cost the city and state – a whole $18 million in foregone tax revenue over the decades-long life of the bonds.
Again, not $400 million.
And certainly not “$4 billion.”
Yes, New Yorkers will also pony up for a new Metro-North station.
But government routinely provides infrastructure improvements to promote development. And tax breaks, too.
It’s true that the team is to pay for construction in lieu of paying property taxes. But the city winds up owning the stadium – plus some first-rate neighborhood parks, sports facilities and community amenities paid for by the Yankees.
Brodsky needs to give it a rest.