MSG asks City: Preserve our tax break

BY BRYAN VIRASAMI
STAFF WRITER

March 22, 2005, 8:26 PM EST

Madison Square Garden officials, who have been battling the Bloomberg administration over the proposed West Side stadium, asked the City Council Tuesday to preserve the Garden's $11-million annual tax break.

Kevin McGrath, a lawyer for the Garden, testified in a hearing that the arena deserves to keep the incentive after 23 years. The hearing was on a proposed resolution calling on Albany to scrap the Garden's property tax exemption, which was instituted in 1982 to keep the Knicks and Rangers from fleeing the city.

McGrath said MSG is "an important and loyal citizen of New York City that has paid a substantial economic price for that loyalty."

Council member David Weprin, (D-Hollis) who backs the West Side stadium, couldn't get McGrath to elaborate on the garden's financial status or much else. He then asked about why the Garden wanted to preserve the tax incentive.

"Do you know of any other for-profit institution in the entire State of New York that has an unlimited expiration date on their tax exemption?" Weprin asked.

When McGrath said he wasn't aware of any at the moment, Weprin snapped back: "I will save you some time. There is none. And that's why you don't know it, because it's really unheard-of for a for-profit institution to have no sunset on a tax exemption."

Some members told McGrath the owners of the Garden and Cablevision should have appeared at the hearing to answer questions about the financial picture of the company and explain why it needs to preserve the incentive.

Cablevision is trying to block Mayor Michael Bloomberg from building a West Side stadium because it would compete for events with the Garden.

Cablevision has put forward its own proposal for the West Side site and has spent millions on advertising aimed at scuttling the stadium plans.

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.