This is an archived version of a Field of Schemes article. Comments on this page are closed. To find the current version of the article with updated comments, click here.
July 20, 2007
Taxpayer cost of Yankees stadium tops $600m
When last we checked in on the New York Yankees stadium project - currently under construction across the street from Yankee Stadium, which will then be demolished - its public price tag was up to $516 million. A report today by the subsidy-watch group Good Jobs New York indicates that the taxpayer cost of the project has now obliterated that mark, with the new estimate being $663.5 million - which would make it the biggest public stadium subsidy in U.S. history.
That's pretty impressive for a project that Mayor Mike Bloomberg declared to be "the state helping the way, but George footing the bill," and of which Yankees president (and former city deputy mayor) Randy Levine declared, "We're paying for this, not the taxpayers." Among the new items inflating the public's tab: tens of millions of dollars of cost overruns on replacement parkland and infrastructure (previously reported here), plus an extra $100 million apiece in property-tax breaks and tax-exempt bond benefits over what was originally reported.
Read more in my article on the Village Voice news blog, or in the full report itself.
Neil,
Do the revised tax dollars ratchet down any projected revenue from the parking garages that will come from the building of the New Yankee Stadium Metro-North station?
The Yankees are saying the MN station will mean less people driving... less parking garage revenue, correct?
Posted by Jonathan on July 23, 2007 12:36 PM
The parking garage deal has become extremely complicated, with a revenue-sharing partnership between the city and the private developer that I don't totally understand yet.
Let me see if I can get one of the study's authors to answer this for you.
Posted by Neil on July 23, 2007 12:48 PM
The parking garage deal has become extremely complicated, with a revenue-sharing partnership between the city and the private developer that I don't totally understand yet.
Let me see if I can get one of the study's authors to answer this for you.
Posted by Neil on July 23, 2007 12:48 PM
Gracias... seems to me like there is some sort of double dipping going on there.
Posted by Jonathan on July 24, 2007 10:04 AM
Hi, this is Dan Steinberg from Good Jobs New York. On the benefits side of the analysis, the revised figures include $57 million of revenue that the city expects from the construction and operation of the garages, presumably from lease payments ($3.2 m annually), sales, parking and personal income taxes.
The city arrived at this number after the Metro-North station had been announced and after the plan for 4 garages was scaled down to 3 as a result. While the number seems high, there is a chance that the enaction of congestion pricing would ensure that the stadium garages are full year-round. While this scenario makes the garage financing more feasible, there are clearly environmental justice implications with building them in a neighborhood plagued by the highest asthma rates in the city.
Posted by Dan Steinberg on July 24, 2007 11:16 AM
On that last point, can someone please post a link to asthma rates in different neighborhoods in NYC? It seems like everytime an issue involving cars and traffic comes up, someone always claims that the particular area in question suffers from the highest asthma rates in the City. It would be nice to have some hard data on these claims.
Posted by John on July 25, 2007 05:24 PM