Posted on 08/30/2015 11:45:24 AM PDT by GeronL
In 2012, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave Donald Trump control of a $236 million public golf course at Ferry Point and threw in a slew of giveaways that include a low revenue-sharing plan with the city and free water. No other city golf course enjoys these perks.
...
How many ways do you spell sweetheart deal?
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg apparently wasn’t satisfied with simply handing Donald Trump control over one of the most expensive public golf courses ever built in this country – the new $236 million, 18-hole Parks Department course scheduled to open next spring at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx.
Bloomberg’s aides quietly added a slew of financial giveaways in the 2012 deal with The Donald that no other city golf course concessionaire enjoys, a Daily News review of Parks Department golf contracts has found.
Those giveaways include: no concession fees for four years; then decades of extraordinarily low revenue-sharing with the city; tens of millions of gallons of free water annually; even a five-year delay for Trump to build a $10 million clubhouse, his only major capital investment in the project.
Start with the greens fees, the basic charge for a round of golf; virtually all of the city’s existing 13 public golf courses charge $48 per person during weekend peak hours, higher for non-city residents.
But the new Trump National Golf Course at Ferry Point plans to charge nearly three times as much — $125 per person.
Trump’s split of revenues with the city, however, will be far less than all other courses.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
None as best I can tell. Ok, so Trump got a "sweetheart" deal. How many taxpayer dollars were involved?
Better yet, how many dollars will be going back into NYC's coffers as a result of this deal?
How many people will be employed during the construction and then once the course opens?
These things are never a zero-sum game and it's very deceiving for people to simply argue "Look at the deal Trump got!" without going a step further to see what the full economic benefits are for the city of New York and the taxpayers.
Where I live, we had a very large K-Mart store close down about two years ago now and it sat there empty. While it was empty, there were no sales tax revenues being generated for our town, and people lost their jobs, resulting in a loss of taxes, and income taxes to the State while also diminishing the economic draw (read that: people who come into our town to shop.)
Lo and behold some 6 months ago our town managed to make a deal with another retailer to take over the space and (hopefully) attract new customers and business.
The new store opened up about two months ago now. It's been WILDLY successful since opening and has exceeded sales tax projections and created some very much needed new part time jobs in our area.
Naturally some people complained about the tax breaks the retailer received to come into our town and open for business. Well, those complaints are being answered in hard dollars coming back to our town via sales tax revenue. In its first two months, the new retailer's sales tax collections were over TEN TIMES that of the KMart that proceeded it. Same retailer is drawing people from well outside our town to come into it and shop. This retailer sells everything from farming related equipment to handguns, rifles, ammunition, bow & arrows, a huge fishing section, a huge selection of premium tools and more.
They've been a great addition to our town and we're glad to have them. With the sales tax projections being generated, we may actually see our first property tax DECREASE in the 23 years I've lived in this house. That would be awesome.
I'm forced to use the pejorative “in the back” because up to now Cruz has appeared to be very friendly towards Trump.
I have said in many previous posts, that Trump and Cruz combination in any form is highly synergistic. As a team, they are very powerful.
What I get turned off on is “some” Cruz supporters posting the most virulent anti-Trump propaganda based on old and irrelevant statements from Trump, and COMPLETELY IGNORING his up-to-date agenda since 2011, on which he has been consistent.
Obviously they are hopeless and bitter and desperate. The numbers look awful from their perspective. I can understand their pain.
Yep. See my post #129. A summary that your post builds on.
I’d asked that question (about laws) rhetorically, to get folks to see the absurdity of this thread/article.
;-)
If a “business” deal is ripping off the taxpayers, it’s not business it is theft.
True only if the deal didn’t benefit the city overall. I would have to look at the books. Trump running the place probably makes money for the city. Even my own beloved mayor Wilson Goode made money building the skyboxes at vet stadium.
Pretty funny, huh!
Yep. And the really ironic thing is that a Trump presidency could well pave the way for a future Cruz presidency, even if Cruz is not on Trump's ticket. Cruz is still a young man.
I see Trump as the one who stops a ship that is going in the wrong direction. Then Cruz is the one who later gets the ship going in the right direction.
He isn't running, so we don't know what he'd say, how he'd say it, and if he could shake things up the way Donald Trump is.
Well, at least you guys have dropped the accusation that Trump is a stalking horse for Hillary. I never believed that, either.
I hear ya loud and clear, and agree 100%
Yeah, exactly... This article is worth another 5 points...for Trump...
These dumb shytes...
Trump is a (fill in the blanks), but it’s about time we had our own (fill in the blanks), running this country....
Instead of these limp wristed politicians of the last 20 years...or more...
And who is the alternative?....Hillary, Biden, Bush, Walker, MArco...God...please save us...Please save this country..
The only thing the left offers is abortion... free and unlimited abortion... that is their whole platform...oh.. and unrestricted immigration...
That’s it...in a nut shell.
Ignore them.. ignore their rhetoric and interviews.. that’s all they offer...
Context matters... Trump rescued an eyesore, at the price of a larger than normal piece of the pie.
But again writ small that is how he went from millionaire to billionaire. Saw the potential in something despised and took the gain (and risk) on himself.
LOL, I forgot all about that theory. I wonder would will come next.
Geron L: Thank you for this thread. It makes us more fully appreciate what an excellent, successful and fair-minded businessman Trump is.
So, it’s a popularity contest?
Yeah, who cares about substance? Trump is entertaining the masses!
I don’t think any of the other course managers built a $10M building on their courses.
Which really wrecks any direct comparison.
And... who else was making proposals on the place. If Trump got picked ahead of other viable proposals just because he was a crony that’s one thing. That isn’t good. But if he was the only or by far the most audacious plan for improving the property (a dump, by another freeper’s account) then that could easily be a far better deal than nothing.
We have to be careful not to argue against capitalism itself like liberals do.
That is a kind of Trump trademark. But still to whose ill was it?
Trump is a conservative of a kind—though not across the board, historically, in all areas.
Still, he’s always been a conservative on taxes (with his one foray into a wealth tax on the very wealthy for a one-time retirement of all federal debt).
He was a national fundraiser for Reagan, and like a Northeast Republican, has been steadfast on tax and regulation issues.
We could easily have far worse entertainment, like the kind that Hillary or Obama or even Jeb provides.
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