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Yankee Stadium Bonds Request Defended as Good for the Bronx

The Bloomberg administration is defending its decision to seek additional tax-exempt bonds for the new Yankee Stadium, pointing to the new jobs, increased revenue, and parkland the project will bring to the Bronx.

The new Yankee Stadium, scheduled to be ready for Opening Day 2009, has already received $942 million in tax-exempt financing, but the Yankees are seeking additional tax-exempt bonds that would primarily fund “scope improvements” such as a scoreboard, concession stands, and other stadium amenities.

Since the Tax Reform Act was enacted in 1986, private developers have faced more restrictions when trying to get tax-exempt bonds for stadiums. In 2006, the Yankees, with the support of the Bloomberg administration, avoided such restrictions by having the city and state pay off the bond debt with money received from the Yankees, also known as payment in lieu of taxes.

The IRS is in the process of closing this loophole, but city officials are requesting that they not.

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Hearings Planned To Tackle Yankees Financing Plea

An assemblyman, a frequent critic of New York’s public authorities, said yesterday that he plans hearings on the Yankees’ request for additional public financing to complete the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

Assemb. Richard Brodsky (D-Hartsdale) said that hearings could be held within “a couple of weeks.”

Brodsky is chairman of the Standing Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, which oversees the state’s public authorities. Last year, he co-sponsored legislation that would require the state’s authorities to submit contracts for review to the comptroller, limit borrowing and seek legislative approval before creating subsidiaries.

“What’s at stake here is a much bigger issue than whether you like or dislike the Yankee Stadium deal,” Brodsky said. “Stadiums [are] soaking a lot of the tax-exempt financing, and we can’t fund the capital plan of the MTA and we’re short capital money on schools and hospitals.”

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