They were crying foul Friday about a sweetheart tax loophole that will enable Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez to live in his new $6 million luxury West Side penthouse and pay virtually no real estate taxes.
The cost of a 28th row ticket for the Yankees 2011 home opener is $1,211.
The cost of an A-Rod autographed bat is $700.
The value of the Yankee third baseman’s special real estate tax break is just about priceless. He’s paying the bargain basement price of less than 4 cents a day.
“It’s really obscene, but not only that people who live in these buildings pay full taxes and they keep going up and up and up,” Batya Lewton, president of the Coalition for a Livable West Side, told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.
Rodriguez and all the residents of his posh high rise will get tax breaks for 10 years under the city’s 421A tax abatement program. Luxury developers get tax breaks in exchange for making sure affordable units get built elsewhere. Rodriguez is one of some 45,000 New Yorkers who have scored the tax break.
“I think it’s outrageous,” Lewton said.
When Rodriguez’s moves into his $6 million, five-bedroom penthouse his tax bill will be $1,150. In contrast, Stephen and Phyllis Franciosa pay $3,100 in taxes one their one-family home in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx.
“Going up again up, up, up,” Stephen said. “We got to make sure we don’t start chasing people from the city because it just gets too expensive.”
“Everything’s going up,” Phyllis added.
“I think my constituents feel a sense of outrage,” NYC Councilman James Vacca said.
“To find that someone rich like this is paying so little, it just goes to our core our feeling that this is not right. This has got to be addressed.”
The councilman said the law needs to be changed because this year alone the program will cost the city $900 million in lost revenue.
A-Rod’s taxes are so low that if he paid the going rate his tax bill would be 50 times higher. He should get such a break when he faces the Red Sox pitching staff.
City officials claim the tax breaks on Rodriguez’ building helped build over 575 units of affordable housing in the Bronx.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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11 Responses
A-Gregious!
50 times 4 cents a day equals $2. So the city is losing $1.96 a day.
Cities, countries, states, counties, etc come up with tax breaks all the time as incentives. If you don’t get one, you are NOT happy. Life isn’t fair and despite what any leftist will tell you, it will NEVER be fair!
We aren’t seeing the whole picture, there is clearly more to the story…
This tax incentive is to encourage more housing development in New York City, which has had a desparate shortage of housing for many decades. And it does seem to work. Why should we resent A-Rod for taking advantage of it?
Hey I agree wit y’all especially #2!! But what does that pic havta do with the story?? Random….!!??!!????!!!!
I don’t know about A-Rod’s tax break, but in 2004 I bought new construction in NYC with a tax abatement. Contrary to what developers want you to think, the abatement is reduced each year. By now, I’m not getting much of a break, maybe a few hundred dollars a year.
This is not a “tax loophole” and has nothing to with A-Rod. The 421-A tax abatement was an incentive for developers to build apartment buildings and residential condominium buildings. The property tax abatement applies to the property – nothing to do with WHO buys the condo. The abatement hold off the city from increasing taxes for a period of the time usually 10,15 or 25 years, before a percentage of the taxes are phased in till finally the full taxes are phased in. In order to be eligible you had to have your foundation in before the deadline.
IIRC Ronald Reagan was criticized when he got a tax break on his ranch. He basically agreed to surrender development rights so it got taxed at a lower rate (as a ranch, not subdivision land). This was something that would have been available to anyone else in the same circumstances. The criticism was unfair.
what does this have to do with Arod? He’s one of manytennants.
No. 3: Are you saying that life is never fair, and cannot ever be fair? If so, your candor is admirable. I would like some of the politicians you favor to take a lesson from you.