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Mayor Vs. Madison Square Garden
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 17, 2004
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 17, 2004
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Ah, there's nothing like billionaires bitching about tax breaks to make the little man feel really pissed. The Mayor brought up how Cablevision, owner of Madison Square Garden, gets a tax break of hundreds of millions. This was Bloomberg's way to retaliate against Cablevision's criticism of the his pet plan for a new Jets Stadium. However, as the NY Times noted, the Mayor's words need taken with a couple cartons of salt:
In criticizing Cablevision's acceptance of a tax exemption, Mr. Bloomberg drew a comparison to his own company, Bloomberg LP, which he said "has always forgone any of the tax breaks because I never thought that the decision for us to stay in the city, or not stay in the city, was a function of tax breaks."
Bloomberg LP did, in fact, negotiate a tax break valued at $14 million with the Giuliani administration in 2000, but Mr. Bloomberg turned it down after winning the election in 2001 to avoid a conflict of interest.
Anyway, Gothamist thinks there's only one way for this to be resolved: A tag team cage match - the Mayor and Jets owner Woody Johnson in one corner, the Dolans (owners of Cablevision) in the other.
Gothamist on the Jets stadium project on the West Side.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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