City Doubles Direct Taxpayer
Subsidy for Ratner Plan
From $100 Million to $205 Million
NEW YORK ,NY — January 29, 2007 — Ratner gets richer as the
public’s burden for ‘Atlantic Yards’ increases yet again
to double their direct
cash subsidy for Bruce Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards.”
The subsidy has climbed from $100 million to $205 million as revealed in the
comes after the project received its only political approval the by the
State’s Public Authorities Control Board in December, amounting to a bait and
switch at taxpayer expense.
The new $205 million taxpayer subsidy is only
part of the City’s subsidy package to Ratner, a package which includes tax
abatements and credits, housing subsidies, undervalued City-owned land, and a
blank check called “extraordinary infrastructure costs.” The total subsidy and
public investment from the City and State comes much closer to $2 billion).
“We’ve
always known that Bruce Ratner’s ‘Atlantic Yards’ would cost the public much
more than we’re being told. This doubling of the City’s taxpayer cash subsidy
to $205 million for Ratner’s
project is just the first blast of helium into a very large balloon of public
money,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesperson Daniel Goldstein.
“There will be many more installments made to Ratner under a blank public check
euphemistically called ‘extraordinary infrastructure costs.’ Who will put a
stop to this?”
When the
City, Forest City Ratner and the State signed an “Atlantic Yards” Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) in February 2005, there was a blank check agreed to called
“extraordinary infrastructure costs.” It appears that that blank check
has started growing.
“The
Mayor has told us over and over that
over $100 million to Ratner, but before seeing if the project can
even survive serious federal and state lawsuits, let alone begin construction,
the Mayor has increased the Ratner handout to $205 million,” Goldstein concluded.
