N.Y. Gov. Hochul lukewarm on stripping Madison Square Garden’s tax exempt status

ALBANY — Gov. Hochul hinted Thursday that she’s not a fan of a plan to strip Madison Square Garden’s tax exempt status.

The governor told Fox 5′s Good Day New York that she knows “how important the Garden is” when asked about a proposal from Senate Democrats that would strip the venue of its 40-year-old property tax exemption amid controversy surrounding owner James Dolan’s use of facial recognition technology to bar critics.

“This is an important asset and it’s part of our identity, people love going there,” the governor said. “I want to make sure that they go forth for many years to come.”

The measure included in the Senate Democrat’s budget blueprint — first reported by the Daily News earlier this week — would repeal Madison Square Garden’s tax exempt status and send all future revenues generated from property taxes to the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

A state law enacted in 1982 granted the “World’s Most Famous Arena” a tax exemption with no expiration date after the then-owners threatened to relocate the Rangers and Knicks to New Jersey.

Dolan has drawn heat from state lawmakers, including Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan), over his use of facial recognition software to keep perceived opponents from attending events at MSG and other venues he owns.

“Madison Square Garden is benefitting from an incredibly generous subsidy that frankly has outlived it’s useful purpose and did so 30 years ago,” Hoylman-Sigal told the Daily News earlier this week. “They aren’t a church, they’re not a nonprofit entity; they’ve benefitted from four decades of public officials looking the other way.”

While he’s butted heads with several state lawmakers, Dolan and his family have been big backers of the governor. Members of the Dolan family poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Hochul’s campaign coffer last year as she narrowly defeated Republican Lee Zeldin.

The governor on Thursday noted that everything is still “fluid” at the moment since she and Legislative leaders are only just starting to negotiate a spending plan ahead of the state’s budget deadline at the end of the month.

“What’s been proposed by a senator is certainly something that we look at, a lot of ideas have been proposed,” she said. “So I just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”

While Hochul wouldn’t say openly whether she supports or opposes the MSG proposal, she repeatedly expressed reverence for the famed midtown Manhattan venue.

“I don’t predispose my position on issues like that, same thing with the budget,” she said. “It’s a fluid situation, but, right now, I know how important MSG is.”

The potential loss of the Garden’s tax exemption isn’t Dolan’s only trouble with the state. The State Liquor Authority last weekend threatened to revoke MSG’s license to sell alcohol at the arena, as well as Radio City and the Beacon Theater, over its barring of lawyers involved in litigation against the Garden.

MSG filed for a court injunction blocking the state from imposing any ban on booze sales in its venues on Saturday.

Additionally, state Attorney General Letitia James asked Dolan in a letter for “justifications for the company’s policies” in keeping certain fans out of his venues earlier this year.

A spokeswoman for MSG took aim at Hoylman-Sigal’s support for tax abatements for film and other industries when asked about the new proposal.

“Our tax abatement is no different than the government subsidies that every single stadium and arena in New York city and state receive and, in fact, is hundreds of millions of dollars less than most other venues,” the spokeswoman said. “Where is the revocation of the subsidies of all the other teams and venues around the state?”