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New York 2012 Won’t Need Tax Payer Money

Whether or not New York hosts the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, New York’s deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff said two major projects will go ahead and not be funded with existing tax revenues.

They include a $1.5 billion Olympic Village high-rise complex in Queens across the East River from the United Nations which would be funded by the builder who would recoup the investment in the private real-estate market once the Games are over.

And a $3 billion West Side redevelopment that would include a major expansion of the Javits Center, the extension of the No. 7 subway line, and a $500 million platform over rail yards at the foot of the 34th Street that would serve as the foundation for a new stadium. It would also be the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field, but would be the new home of the New York Jets football team.

Doctoroff said of the West Side projects, “all of that would be paid for with no existing tax revenues. We would sell bonds to private investors through an authority, and those would be repaid through incremental taxes that are generated when we make the investment in the infrastructure that makes the development possible”.

Doctoroff said he is counting on the Jets to pay the bulk of the $500 million cost of the stadium itself.

According to Doctoroff and NYC2012 Executive Director Jay Kriegel, construction of the No. 7 subway extension is expected to be underway before the IOC makes its decision, and other preliminary work will have begun on the West Side.

Doctoroff said at a news conference “the cost of putting on the Games themselves, in 2002 dollars, would be about $2.7 billion, and all of that money would be raised privately from television rights, ticket sales, and sponsorship revenues”.

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