City Comptroller Bill Thompson has a model for building mega-projects, and—surprise!—it’s not the same strategy as Mayor Bloomberg’s.
Speaking at a Crain’s New York breakfast Thursday morning at the Hyatt on 42nd Street, the Democratic nominee for mayor offered a blast from the past as his standard-bearer for how the city should Read More
In the world of low- and moderate-income housing, the last two mayoral campaigns were fruitful ones.
Particularly in the competitive Democratic primaries, two fields of candidates launched arms races of sorts on housing, ultimately presenting plans that called for huge infusions of new money and an array of new policies long pushed by advocates. The Read More
A seat on the board of the Industrial Development Agency is not the most illustrious post in city government. The agency devotes itself to arranging and approving tax incentive packages and tax-free financing for various industrial and commercial city firms, and the board itself is controlled by the Bloomberg administration, which appoints the Read More
A seat on the board of the Industrial Development Agency is not the most illustrious post in city government. The agency devotes itself to arranging and approving tax incentive packages and tax-free financing for various industrial and commercial city firms, and the board itself is controlled by the Bloomberg administration, which appoints the Read More
When real estate markets crash, low-income-housing developers often can escape relatively unscathed. After all, unlike luxury condos, there is always a demand for apartments that target low-income households, so downturns tend to bring shovels to a halt on the market-rate projects far faster than on the subsidized ones.
But the ever-deepening Read More
Further sharpening contrasts with the Bloomberg administration, Comptroller Bill Thompson has blocked a $31.3 million city design contract for the Brooklyn House of Detention, which the mayor is seeking to reopen and expand.
In a letter to the commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction, Mr. Thompson’s office said it was blocking the Read More
Here’s an interesting graphic from Comptroller Thompson’s annual report on the city’s capital debt and obligations released late last week, showing the rapid rise in debt service that the city will owe in coming years. Between 2008 and 2018, the report says that annual debt payments will increase from $4.8 billion to $8.1 Read More
The Yankees and Mets have received approval for $342 million in tax-free bonds for their new stadiums.
The board of the city-run Industrial Development Agency voted 11-1-1 in favor of the $259 million in tax-exempt bonds for the Yankees and 13-0 for the Mets’ $83 million, according to an IDA spokesman.
This Read More
After staying relatively quiet for years on Mayor Bloomberg’s deal for a new Yankee Stadium, Comptroller Bill Thompson has come out swinging, as today he attacked the Bloomberg administration for “incredible mismanagement” of the project.
“Anybody can see that this is simply a bad deal for New York,” he said in a Read More
Location: The city’s fiscal future looks pretty rough. How would you feel about raising property taxes?
Mr. Thompson: What you’re looking at now … it’s almost a rollback on a reduction. Because if you look, they just cut property taxes 7 percent. I think it is reasonable to expect that that’s Read More
