Even when the Knicks and the Rangers lose, Madison Square Garden keeps racking up the score.

If you didn't read the sports section in today's Daily News, you missed a story about a $48.5 million tax giveaway to one of the most successful businesses in the city.

While the New York Knicks seem to be stuck in permanent rebuilding mode and the New York Rangers were booted out of the playoffs in the first round this spring, attendance is doing just fine at Madison Square Garden. And regardless of their teams' lackluster performances, one place where MSG officials continue to win is in Albany.

A bill that would have repealed a generous property tax exemption to MSG was quietly defeated Tuesday by a State Assembly tax committee. Ironically, a Hudson Valley Republican lawmaker, Kieran Lalor, was leading the charge to repeal the tax break, calling it "one of the worst examples of corporate welfare in New York State."

MSG is still reaping the benefits from a 1982 deal with then-Mayor Ed Koch that prevented the Rangers and Knicks from moving to New Jersey – or other parts unknown -- for at least ten years. As The New York Times' Joyce Purnick pointed out in 2002, Koch at the time portrayed the tax break as temporary – although the fine print said otherwise.

Since the deal was struck – which required state approval -- MSG may have saved a cumulative total of about $450 million in taxes. With New York City's mascot morphing from Travis Bickle to Mickey Mouse, it's unclear why the Garden is still getting an annual tax break. Are the teams seriously looking to leave midtown Manhattan for somewhere in South Carolina? And should big businesses get the same kind of tax breaks that are typically reserved for churches and educational institutions?

While the mayor and the City Council want to put the Garden back on the tax rolls, it's a different story in Albany.  For years, James Dolan, the CEO of Cablevision, which owns the Garden, smartly curried favor with former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was a big Rangers fan and the driving force behind killing a rival West Side stadium for the New York Jets. And earlier this year, Dolan picked a big card from Governor Cuomo's deck, hiring longtime Cuomo confidante Joe Percoco last December to be a senior vice president. Percoco has since become a familiar name in the news, facing a federal probe for his role in Cuomo's "Buffalo Billion" program.

If state lawmakers and the governor wanted to distance themselves from both corporate power and the pay-to-play culture, they could have allowed the city to send a tax bill to the Garden that thousands of small businesses pay each year.

Instead, it's business as usual and another big win for the Garden.

 

Bob Hardt