Another Council lament for MSG’s unique tax break
Dana Rubinstein
The City Council is holding a hearing today on Madison Square Garden's widely derided, state-authorized property tax exemption, one that will be worth $54 million a year by 2015.
That value is based on the calculations of the city's Independent Budget Office, whose deputy director today submitted testimony that took pains to stress that while his office "does not take a position on whether Madison Square Garden’s exemption should be repealed or continued," most tax experts consider such exemptions to be bad policy.
“With an open‐ended benefit, the city continues to face an annual cost even if the conditions that prompted the initial deal have changed," said George Sweeting, in the written testimony.
After threatening to leave the city in 1982, the state granted the Garden a property tax reprieve, one whose value has grown in lockstep with that of the Garden.
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