Ban Ki Boondoggle

When Ban Ki-moon takes over as secretary-general of the United Nations, he'll be moving into a 14,000-square-foot residence that will undergo a $4.3 million renovation at U.N. expense, the Daily News reported yesterday. And that's not all — the U.N. will pay an additional $202,500 to put the international civil servant up in a hotel for nine months while the renovation work takes place.

The American taxpayers end up paying a hefty share of this, as they do for all U.N. activities. The expense is absurd — for $4.3 million, one can purchase a perfectly adequate residence in New York City that doesn't need renovation. More to the point, why should the federal taxes of the many New Yorkers living in humbler circumstances go to provide a subsidy for Mr. Ban to live in the lap of luxury?

The reckless spending on the secretary-general's residence is being repeated on a larger scale with the $3 billion "renovation" of U.N. headquarters. No doubt there will be those who argue that we should be glad to have the United Nations in New York City, where at least the wasteful spending ends up in the pockets of New York-based construction workers, architects, and interior decorators. We're not buying that argument. Better to cut taxes by the amount of America's contribution to the United Nations and let New Yorkers spend the money renovating their own apartments rather than those of U.N. bureaucrats.