With tax-exempt financing, the City and State lose the ability to collect income tax on bond interest paid to the bondholders. It is a small amount of money.

Lets say the bonds would have paid 5% interest if they were taxable. On $370 million in bonds that is $18.5 million in interest per year the City and State can not collect income taxes on. (the bondholders would report the interest as income on taxable bonds)

The combined City and State tax rate is 10% so the amount of tax collection lost is $1.85 mil per year. (10% tax on 18.5 mil)

This is not a big deal given the amount of revenue the City and State will take in.

It is certainly much lower than the headline numbers bandied about. Remember, the Yankees have to pay off the debt, not the City.

How much sales tax will the City and State collect from the Hard Rock and Steakhouse?

Not to mention payroll taxes from the employees of the restaurants?

You have to spend money to make money.

So was the reason for the stadiums were long term increased tax revenue?

I am just curious because usually stadiums come out of relocation threats.

Was the driving force that no one wished to be “that guy on the city council who doesn’t like the Yankees?”

Thanks for the info, Pete.  I hear you, Jon, that the amount of money the city is giving up may not be incredibly large, considering the scope of things.  But I imagine this is only the tip of the iceberg.  There’s probably a lot more government money and favors flowing to the Yankees and other companies like them.  It’s incredibly frustrating that the city and the team both trumpet the fact that the city is “only paying for infrastructure upgrades” and that the park will be fully paid for by the team.  And then we come to find out not only that it’s not the case, but that illegal things (like the extreme re-evaluation of the property value at the behest of the mayor’s office) were done that served the team’s interests.

Maybe 1.85 million dollars in tax revenue doesn’t sound like a lot to the city of New York.  But I used to work in the city at a counselor to families who had lost a family member to homicide.  My salary was less than $30k, and I lost my job when the city budgets were cut.  I became a domestic violence counselor, and budgets were cut again.  $1.85 million could have easily paid the salaries and expenses of our entire program, with probably $1.5 million to spare.  So when I hear about large amounts being tossed around to corporations like they’re not important, I remember how much good that money could do if it were directed where it’s really needed.

Thanks, Pete—I’ve looked at it but don’t read it regularly.  Rob Neyer has linked to it several times over the years, and I heard about it through his column.