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Fireworks fly in Yankee Stadium hearing

Allegations of grandstanding and mismanaged city investments dominate a second day of hearings regarding the New York Yankees’ request for additional bond proceeds to finish Yankee Stadium.
Allegations of grandstanding and mismanaged city investments dominate a second day of hearings regarding the New York Yankees’ request for additional bond proceeds to finish Yankee Stadium.

The issue: the Yankees and Mets are seeking additional revenue from city-backed bonds to finish their new ballparks, slated to open this April. Both teams have pursued a funding model where they borrow money from the New York City Industrial Development Agency; the agency issues tax-exempt bonds that both teams will repay. The Yankees and Mets benefit by being able to borrow money on a tax-free basis (though not a totally free basis; both teams are repaying the bonds with interest), while the city sees the benefits of new ballparks, new jobs, and new tax revenues. (Yes, new tax revenues: both teams will make payments in lieu of property taxes for their new privately owned ballparks. Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium never generated a dime of property taxes because New York City owned both.)

Being New York City, this financing method has received a lot of opposition among community organizers, who say spending any money on a sports facility is a waste of money. (The distinction between funding and financing a ballpark is frequently blurred here; it’s not as though the bond money spent on either ballpark was sitting in a bank account or able to be spent on things like city services.) And the second day of hearings over the Yankees second request for tax-exempt bonds brought on a long line of "witnesses" saying the money could be spent better elsewhere. Along the way there were some seriously wacko assertions — like the issuing of bond money was illegal (from Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who’s decided his claim to populist cred in pursuit of higher office will come at the expense of the Yankees). You can read more about the hearings in The New York Times, Newsday and the Village Voice. Neil Best apparently is the voice of reason. Another reason why newspapers deserve to die: The Poughkeepsie Journal can’t tell the difference between funding and financing.