| Earlier today I wrote about how the end of the session usually brings us all manner of truly bad legislation, amendments so narrowly written so as to benefit only certain interests, industries or individuals, language so precise they are literally referred to as "contracts."
Well here is a perfect illustration of that shameful phenomena, an illustration showing how we give sweet deals to those with enough money to buy a couple legislators to slip this stuff in. In an ironic twist, we are giving tax breaks to a billionaire real estate developer, and him alone, in a bill to eliminate tax breaks to billionaire real estate developers.
Nice work if you can get it...
Albany 421-a Reform Bill Hands
One-of-a-Kind, Special Favors to Forest City Ratner
Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards Project Would Be The Only Project to
Receive Tax Breaks for Luxury Condos Under Bill
Bruce Ratner is about to join his own exclusive developer's club, once again at taxpayer expense.
Forest City Ratner has often claimed that it's not getting anything that any other developer can't get. That was never the case, but now the development firm has positioned itself to get something that no other developer is getting.
Albany is creating a special loophole exclusively for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project as part of its bill "reforming" the 421-a tax breaks for development originally enacted in 1971. With this special legislation Forest City Ratner's market-rate luxury condominiums will be the only such units in the entire reform zone receiving the 421-a tax break, saving the developer untold millions.
"This is the cherry on top of all of the special treatment and sweetheart deals Forest City Ratner has been gifted for its Atlantic Yards project. This exclusive clause in the 421-a reform bill, benefiting Bruce Ratner alone, is an astounding example of absolute governmental favoritism, at odds with the very principles for which the reform bill is supposed to stand," said Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman, Daniel Goldstein. "There is no valid justification for this favoritism, and clearly there has been an utter lack of transparency in the decision to award one developer a special corporate-welfare package. Is there any end to the favoritism and backroom dealing that consistently benefits Bruce Ratner? Will Governor Spitzer choose to allow passage of such backroom special dealing? "
The special clause within the reform bill does not specifically name the
Atlantic Yards project but rather describes "a multi-phase project that
includes at least 2,500 dwelling units and (i) being implemented pursuant
to a General Project Plan adopted by the New York State Urban Development
Corporation and approved by Public Authorities Control Board." There is
only one such project in the state fitting that description, and that's
Atlantic Yards. Forest City Ratner is also seeking an extraordinary $1.4
billion in government backed, tax-exempt housing bonds.
"There should be an immediate Independent Budget Office (IBO) evaluation of all of the financial and tax benefits flowing to Forest City Ratner for affordable housing to determine the cost per unit, how many units are being deferred from other areas of the city, and how many units this level of funding could provide if it were dispersed without favoritism," said former City Planning Commissioner and DDDB Advisory Board member Ron Shiffman.
On his Atlantic Yards Report, watchdog journalist Norman Oder wrote,
"The final version of the bill apparently came down to two men in
a room, Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez (and surrogates) and
Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) executive Steve Spinola (ditto). And
in those backroom negotiations emerged
a nice plum for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. (The lack
of an obligation to build affordable housing in [Atlantic Yards] condo buildings
adds to the developer's bottom line in multiple ways.)"
To make matters worse, this special legislation granting exclusive and extraordinary tax breaks to Forest City Ratner would force lower-income residents of the proposed Atlantic Yards subsidized "affordable" housing to shell out at least 35% of their incomes for rent. This runs completely counter to accepted standards for "affordable housing," which typically involves a resident paying 30% of income towards rent the very principle behind the "Atlantic Yards" housing deal negotiated privately between Forest City Ratner and ACORN.
"With all due respect to ACORN, it's confounding that they are supporting
this special benefit to Ratner, making a mockery of the very reform bill
they fought so hard to push forward," Goldstein said. "It makes
no sense for ACORN to support tax breaks for luxury condos when that is
precisely what the reform bill was supposed to eliminate. Also,
ACORN
and Forest City Ratner had promised that each Atlantic Yards building
would be mixed affordable and market-rate, but that is another broken promise
by Ratner that ACORN appears willing to overlook."
As I and many others have been saying for quite some time now, everything wrong with New York City and New York State politics is represented in the Ratnerville project. Influence peddling, crony capitalism, back room deals, shady legislation, lack of any meaningful public participation, overt favoritism to monied interests - it's all there.
Stories like this make a mockery of the entire system. |
