Mayor Defends Subsidy Plan For Baseball

The Bloomberg administration is defending a report that $20 million in city subsidies could be directed to the development of a new Major League Baseball television network in an office tower to be built in Harlem.

According to a report in the New York Times, city officials are considering a $15 million subsidy to the developer of the 21-story building, Vornado Realty Trust, and a $5million subsidy to Major League Baseball. A spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corp. said the subsidy is being negotiated.

At a press conference yesterday Mr. Bloomberg defended his support of the subsidies.

"As you know, I fundamentally have always thought that we should not be giving credits to people to build. This is however something that really is important to the neighborhood," he said.

Mr. Bloomberg's support of the proposed subsidies represents a departure from his long-held stance that corporate subsidies are irresponsible public policy. Mr. Bloomberg said because this project would create between 350 and 400 jobs, the subsidies were acceptable.

A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled to he held on March 6. Critics are questioning whether the subsidies are necessary to keep Major League Baseball in New York.

"With a budget crisis looming, we should question whether giving tax breaks to baseball and incredibly wealthy developers without real guarantees of jobs is wasteful," the director of Good Jobs New York, Bettina Damiani said.