A Stitch in Haste

More on New York’s jackhole mayor’s favorite vanity project — a Manhattan stadium for the New York Jets:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a group of activists and lawmakers who want a new football stadium built on the west side of Manhattan are taking aim at tax breaks given to Cablevision, one of the main opponents of the stadium plan. Cablevision is fighting the stadium proposal because it fears the new venue will take business away from the nearby Madison Square Garden, which it owns.
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The activists say MSG has received $200 million in tax breaks over the past 22 years that they claim could have been used for other things, such as buying new equipment for the FDNY, and salaries for teachers and members of the NYPD.
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Bloomberg said Tuesday he believes Cablevision should give up the tax exemption on its own. “They have their monopoly, and they want to keep it,” said the mayor. “They say they care about the city. Well, if they cared about the city, why don’t they forgo their tax break? That’ll help provide raises for some of our municipal workers, and there is no reason why they shouldn’t do it.”

NYABC, the group largely bankrolled by Cablevision wants to know: “When are the Mayor and the Jets going to answer the tough questions about the more than $600 million in taxpayer subsidies they are seeking for the football stadium instead of attempting to silence the opposition to the stadium.”

As a project per se, I couldn’t care less about the stadium were it a strictly private undertaking. But if it can’t pay for itself privately, then by definition it isn’t “needed” in any intellectually honest sense and it should under no circumstances be built or financed by the city, state or any other government entity. That’s the easy part.

But look at the flagrant double-standard Blooperberg uses: the side he supports should of course get $600 million in government subsidies up front, plus however much will spew forth over time. His opponent, meanwhile, by receiving one-third as much subsidization over 22 years, is an un-civic-minded “monopoly” that doesn’t “care about the city” (but of course that doesn’t apply when that very same “monopoly” is hosting his party’s national convention, right?).

Cablevision of course shouldn’t get any subsidies. Neither should George Steinbrenner nor the Jets nor any of the other sports franchises or facilities owners. Like I said before: that’s the easy part.

But notice how brazenly Blooperberg talks out of both sides of his mouth. In practically the same paragraph he contradicts his position based on nothing more than his subjective whim. This has been a trademark of Hizzoner since he took office: confusing “I like it because it’s good” with “It’s good because I like it.”

Cablevision’s tax breaks could fund raises for municipal workers? Fascinating, since just a few months ago Blooperberg said workers shouldn’t demand raises because he, a billionaire, “works for a dollar.”

He drives private firms and their private-sector jobs away by regulation, or taxes them into bankruptcy, but municipal employees must not be laid off because “it’s a hardship for them.”

He grandstands by not moving into Gracie Mansion because “he doesn’t need it,” then effectively confiscates every restaurant and bar in the city with an unconscionable smoking ban “to protect bartenders” (he protected many of them straight into unemployment).

He raises residential property taxes proportionally but then sneaks in a regressivity element by giving everyone a fixed-dollar “rebate” (which of course had to be mailed to property owners rather than just credited against next year’s taxes, so Bloomberg could bask in the publicity as the checks are mailed out).

This man was elected while the city was in still in a state of shock. He was elected, almost solely based on Rudy Giuliani’s endorsement (which I guarantee you he will not get in 2005), to act as a placeholder while the city regrouped and rebuilt. He was not elected to turn this city into his personal experiment in benevolent dictatorship. And even that he can’t do consistently, as his constant weather-vane positions demonstrate.

Related Post:
Sports Stadiums and the Pseudo-Economics of “Rooting”

The “Anybody But Bloomberg” Archive:
Bloomberg Flip-Flops — Now Opposes Domestic Partner Benefits
Charges Against “Just Plead Guilty” Protesters Dropped
NYC and the Olympics
“Just Plead Guilty”
Put Out That Cigarette Cell Phone!
“Be Still My Beating Wallet”

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