MSG gets $16M in tax breaks that won't end under Cuomo

MSG Press Release by Queens Crapper

From the Daily News:

Gov. Cuomo said he opposes efforts to revoke a lucrative city property tax hike for Madison Square Garden.

“I haven’t heard any argument that’s convincing for eliminating that,” Cuomo said Tuesday.

At an earlier press conference, Assemblyman David Weprin and Sen. James Sanders, both Queens Democrats, said they are pushing the bill to revoke the three-decade-old tax credit that saves the Garden an estimated $16 million a year because the cash-strapped city can use the money more than a rich corporation.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told the Daily News Monday that getting rid of the tax break would be “troubling.”

A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg had no comment.

Common Cause/New York released an analysis that showed Cablevision, which purchased the Garden in 1994 but spun it off into a separate company in 2010 with the Dolans retaining a controlling interest in both companies, is a major campaign contributor to Cuomo and other key officials.

Cuomo, the top individual recipient of Cablevision donations since 2005, has received $359,150 as governor an additional $50,100 as attorney general from the company.

Former Cuomo aide Irene Baker last year left the administration to join MSG as its senior vice president for government affairs.

From CBS New York:

Silver told the News the deal is to encourage development.

The tax break has been in place since 1982.

1) Yes, developers need to be "encouraged."

2) MSG is already developed.

3) If the tax break is eliminated, they won't be going anywhere.

4) Cuomo is a bullsh*t reformer.