Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
#1Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/30/08 at 7:43pm
CORPORATE WELFARE AT WORK!
Field of Schemes: Congress Probes How New Sports Stadiums Turn Public Money into Private Profit
A congressional subcommittee has launched a probe into the use of public financing to build sports complexes like the new Yankee Stadium. The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, will hold hearings this September on whether land for the new stadium in the Bronx was wildly inflated to justify nearly a billion dollars in tax-free bonds.
Congressman Kucinich is looking into whether city officials overvalued the stadium site by several times its actual price.
The Yankees would have avoided—or the bond-holders would have avoided millions in taxes, because they would be exempt from paying taxes on interest they earn. Meanwhile, the Yankees have requested an additional $336 million in tax-free bonds to help complete the stadium.
In a letter sent earlier this month to Yankees president Randy Levine, New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky noted that the tax-free interest earned on the stadium bonds “normally would go into the city’s coffers to pay for schools, police and health care.”
To watch entire DEMOCRACY NOW segment or read entire transcipt:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/30/field_of_schemes_congress_probes_how
#2re: Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/30/08 at 7:54pmwell...they could just give the team to Oklahoma City, I suppose.
#2re: Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/30/08 at 8:12pm
Well it seems the Yankees continue to threaten to leave New York if the public won't pay for them to stay.
As they say in the piece, it is something of an empty threat because the value of the team would be diminished if it left, so they aren't going anywhere...but of course, WE have to pay for them stay.
They cover this fairly extensively in the broadcast.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#3re: Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/30/08 at 8:24pmWhat else is new.
#4re: Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/30/08 at 8:29pm
I would encourage everyone to contact their representatives and hound them on this issue.
Or.. you can simply sit by and and do nothing.
Your choice.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#5re: Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/30/08 at 8:40pm
liberals are so stupid. so what? better to give the money to a corporation than to some welfare mom with a hungry ababy. if you can't afford children DON'T HAVE THEM. simple
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#7Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/31/08 at 12:52pm
Bowler,
Just shut up.
I hate the Yankees with a BITTER passion. However, this just only proves why I hate them more. They are pretty much blackmailing the city to get them to continue to play here. They know that they won't leave. However, the people get too scared when they hear this that they want to confirm that it won't happen. So they feed into thier demands time and time again.
I am just happy that my baseball team The Mets are building a stadium that is privetly funded and not getting a penny out of public money.
#8money makes the world go 'round
Posted: 7/31/08 at 1:27pm
yeah, winston. except for the $500m in public funds the mets got for citi field.
you dumbass
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#9money makes the world go 'round - COPORATIONS MAKE AMERICA GREAT!!
Posted: 7/31/08 at 1:31pm
YEAH YOU MOTHER F*CKING DUMB ASS!!!!
MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND and ONLY LIBERAL WHINERS LIKE YOU WHO DON'T HAVE ANY DONT GET TO RIDE.
the public should support coporate profit making ALL THE TIME. It is what make the ecomony great and it is better than spending the money on poor people too lazy to earn it themselves.
GROW UP LIBERAL DUMB ASSESS!!
Updated On: 7/31/08 at 01:31 PM
#10Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/31/08 at 1:50pm
Money only makes the world go round smoothly if there is somewhat even distribution. What we are facing - and have been facing for sometime - is an bottom to top movement of money from the poorest to the wealthiest.
A kind of trickle UP economics, where the working-poor and middle class work harder and harder for less and less, are expected to make any sacrifices this economic system my need to survive, while those who are wealthy continue to get disproportionally advantageous tax breaks and subsidies.
Check out the CORPORATE SUBSIDY WATCH SECTION of this website:
http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/about_us.cfm
#11money makes the world go 'round
Posted: 7/31/08 at 1:58pmand just when has this utopian somewhat even distribution of wealth ocurred?
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
#12Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/31/08 at 2:06pm
I don't know if it has on a large scale. I've read some anthropologists who point to some small scale examples. The EARLY israeli kibbutz scene looked promising, and comes to mind.
But all that is besides the point.
Just because a our current system isn't Utopian, doesn't mean we can't improve it to better serve the needs of the many rather than the few.
Social and economic systems evolve and progress. Our own country was born from breaking away from a system of monarchical governance to a more democratic citizen-based form of governance.
Nothing like this existed before, people called it Utopian folly. But we are still here.
#13money makes the world go 'round
Posted: 7/31/08 at 2:13pm
have fun trying to sell socialism to the american people.
or better yet, lead by example and give up all those things you don't need. since you might be prejudiced in understanding what you really need i'll take care of that for you. i'll be by to inspect your life and determine how much you really need.
oh wait, no it's not you who has to change, it's other people? oh ok.
again, good luck with that.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
#14Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/31/08 at 2:20pm
I'm actually selling nothing. I'm trying to promote more awareness of how money is being spent on the issue of the New Yankee stadium.
Some people are comfortable with that. I'm not.
As for my own lifestyle, I'm flattered that you are using your imagination to make an inventory of my needs or lack there of. But your imagination - while vast and inventive - does not make the $900 million we will be spending go away.
And stopping that is my focus right now, and how I choose to lead by example.
#15money makes the world go 'round
Posted: 7/31/08 at 2:28pmyeah, point fingers and whine. don't offer solutions. just cry and pout and post to a message board. fortunately this is why i don't have to worry about socialists managing any real change in america. they always want other people to change. never themselves. it's why when some idiots manage to get power and try to implement it, it generally leads to either totalitarianism and the kinds of abuses that make the heart weep or a bloated bureaucratic nightmare of waste that leads to economic collapse. either way, it never works and the people go back to the only system that works: capitalism.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#16money makes the world go 'round
Posted: 7/31/08 at 2:33pm
HIGH FIVE!!!!
I HATE THAT FAT BLONDE BITCH TOO!! SHE WANTS PEOPLE TO WRITE LETTERS AND CALL REPS. GO RIGHT AHEAD. THE BUILDING WILL STILL BE BUILT AND THE TAX MONEY WILL STILL MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!
CORPORATIONS MAKE THIS COUNTRY GREAT..
#17Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/31/08 at 2:39pm
Back on point:
CORPORATE WELFARE AT WORK!
Field of Schemes: Congress Probes How New Sports Stadiums Turn Public Money into Private Profit
A congressional subcommittee has launched a probe into the use of public financing to build sports complexes like the new Yankee Stadium. The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, will hold hearings this September on whether land for the new stadium in the Bronx was wildly inflated to justify nearly a billion dollars in tax-free bonds.
Congressman Kucinich is looking into whether city officials overvalued the stadium site by several times its actual price.
The Yankees would have avoided—or the bond-holders would have avoided millions in taxes, because they would be exempt from paying taxes on interest they earn. Meanwhile, the Yankees have requested an additional $336 million in tax-free bonds to help complete the stadium.
In a letter sent earlier this month to Yankees president Randy Levine, New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky noted that the tax-free interest earned on the stadium bonds “normally would go into the city’s coffers to pay for schools, police and health care.”
To watch entire DEMOCRACY NOW segment or read entire transcipt:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/30/field_of_schemes_congress_probes_how
#18Corporate Welfare at work for New Yankee Stadium: $900 mill from taxpayers
Posted: 7/31/08 at 2:56pm
Here is an interesting excerpt from broadcast:
JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like ask Bettina Damiani from Good Jobs New York, this whole issue of this thing called “PILOTs,” or payments in lieu of taxes, for use of repaying these tax-exempt bonds, is a very complicated issue that most the general public doesn’t understand. Your organization has been in the forefront of questioning these kinds of development deals by New York, but also, by extension, by many municipalities around the country. Could you break down how these PILOTs work generally?
BETTINA DAMIANI: Certainly. And it’s not just the average New Yorker, as we learned through the Yankee Stadium project. Most New York City and New York State elected officials don’t quite understand the issue of PILOTs, which is part of the crux of this issue.
Essentially, PILOTs are payments in lieu of taxes. Instead of paying taxes, the Yankees are paying back their tax-free bonds. So, there’s money that should be going into, as Assembly member Brodsky mentioned, the pot of money that would help pay for roads and schools and other services that New York City needs. Instead, it’s just going—it’s being completely diverted. And this, unfortunately, is a policy that is not done just with the Yankees but with a variety of other very large financial firms that have managed to make a special deal with New York City.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And in this particular case, it was actually in the interest of the New York Yankees to have a very high assessment of their land, because that would allow them to be able to float more bonds and pay more PILOTs, which is their main goal here, is to raise as much money as possible to build their stadium, right?
BETTINA DAMIANI: Exactly, and that’s the irony. And that’s one of the things that you mentioned in your article yesterday, is that in the South Bronx, the city was trying desperately to inflate the value of property, but not to benefit the larger community or the people that live in the neighborhood, but really for the sole benefit of the New York Yankees.
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