Suite Charity in the Bronx

It was only a matter of time before stories like this began to trickle out:

Mayor Bloomberg's top aides engaged in a behind-the-scenes brawl to win a free luxury suite at the new Yankee Stadium that could wind up costing taxpayers, e-mails show.

Some of the mayor's top deputies spent months threatening and cajoling to get the free skybox. They even demanded free food and ultimately got most of what they wanted after they agreed to provide America's richest team 250 free stadium parking spaces in exchange.

The loss of revenue from those spaces could wind up coming back to haunt taxpayers if the garage owner - who pays rent to the city - can't pay what he owes.

<snip>

The Yankees got the city to write a letter to the IRS so they could obtain $942 million in tax-free bonds. The team plans to request $366 million more, saving them a total of $247 million in lower borrowing costs. In return, Bloomberg's team wanted a free luxury suite and the right to buy at cost 180 of the best seats to all home games, including post-season, the e-mails show.

<snip>

Under the plan, the garage owners would lose $820,000 per season, which could make it difficult to pay the city $3.2 million rent annually.

Thanks to BadgerBC in the Google Group for posting the link. I hope nobody is surprised by these shenanigans.  I'm certainly not and it's probably just a matter of time before more economic hijinks reach the papers. My problem is, I don't know exactly what's legal here and what isn't.  All it takes to receive millions in tax free bonds is a letter from the city?  Is it that simple?  If the city can do that and the IRS approved it, can it be illegal?  Unethical, sure, but who's blackmailing who here? If you're the Yankees, wouldn't you

have

to ask for the city to write this letter?  You would be a bad business if you weren't trying to save some money, even if the taxpayer is footing a lot of the cost of this stadium.  We all want to save money and the Yankees aren't any different.  Who is paying the interest on those tax free bonds? These city politicians obviously saw their chance to call in their favor and they took it.  Threatening to pull the tax free bonds without a suite is indeed blackmail.  My question is, is it in the city's power to just give $820,000 of privately owned parking to whomever they want without footing the bill?  Apparently it is. I'm a bit surprised that the city has the power to pull all of these strings.  People wonder why government costs have gotten completely out of control.  These types of open-ended powers seem like a good place to start looking.