HARD TO BELIEVE !!! >>> Marty Golden is still beating the drum for 421-a tax giveaway to developers >>> like waving a red flag at U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara

State Senator Martin Golden’s quote in the “…Journal” (“Wall Street…” not “Bay Ridge…”) shows how passionate our local GOP legislator is to continue giving BIG tax breaks for BIG-TIME real estate developers under the controversial 421-a program

It’s amazing that  >>> MARTY GOLDEN <<<  is talking about this at all ---  given the  >>> ACTIVE INVESTIGATION <<<  of Mr. Golden by U.S. Attorney  >>> PREET BHARARA <<<  that directly came out of the most recent Moreland Commission inquiries and the Feds’ investigation of the interactions of many big time real estate developers and the NYS legislative leadership (which has already resulted in several top level  convictions)

While more progressive legislators, and even some moderates and conservatives seemed to be hopeful that this particular giveaway to the most powerful developers would be replaced by something that is less of a “giveaway”  ---   “….  Sen. Marty Golden, a Republican representing Brooklyn, saw more urgency. Like some others, he pinned the program’s failure partly on clashes between the governor and the mayor….  ‘Hopefully someone will step forward and get this resolved,’ he said….”  ( See “After NYC Property-Tax Break Dies, Angst Lives --  Immediate prospects of Albany lawmakers restoring the 421-a program look bleak” by Josh Dawsey, Keiko Morris and Mike Vilensky, 1/20/16, Wall Strret Journal/ New York/ NY Politics [http://www.wsj.com/articles/after-nyc-tax-break-dies-angst-lives-1453342550?mod=rss_US_News]). 

Specifically referring to the 421-a tax giveaway,   Kelly Cummings, a spokeswoman for Senate Republicans, said “we still believe it’s imperative that a program is in place that fixes the City’s inequitable taxing structure that is preventing the private construction of affordable rental housing.”  However, others have focused on what really might be holding things up >>>  “… headwinds for 421-a in Albany this year because New York real-estate executives were important witnesses for the prosecution in recent public-corruption trials. Meanwhile, still others, agreeing with SSMG,  say it is an election year and the feud between Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio  [but, isn't that odd  ---  neither Cuomo nor de Blasio have elections in 2016  ---  however, Marty Golden does].

MARTY GOLDEN’S [CONSERVATIVE PARTY] ALLY, DAVID GREENFIELD ALSO QUOTED IN SAME WSJ ARTICLE

The Wall Street Journal article also added this interesting subscript: “….  While other tax subsidies could propel construction, city officials may be forced to change their neighborhood rezoning plans scheduled for a vote this spring in the City Council….  ‘It’s definitely going to throw a wrinkle in the city’s plans,’ said David Greenfield [strongly aligned with SSMG on this and some other stuff], who chairs the land use committee on the City Council…. [Note: there are many other tools to encourage affordable-housing development and the 421-a program plays only one part in construction decisions.]   Developers say they don’t expect an immediate stop in the pipeline, because most developers began many projects before the deadline expired last year. Mr. Lombino said he expected a decline in 18 to 24 months.”