"The governor's office has to step in and resolve this issue. The Gaming Commission falls under the auspices of the governor."
Page F2From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 31 August 2026
NYC casino seeks 72% tax break as a private venue charges $300K to use a public plaza.
As it ran on the front
Two documents came in on the same cycle, hon, and they're worth setting next to each other. The first is a request: Democrats are asking Governor Hochul to block a 72% tax rate on New York City's first full casino before it takes effect. The rate, as filed, applies to the casino's revenue. The ask is to lower that number before the doors open.
The second document is an invoice. A private venue operating under a public bridge — public land, a public plaza — is charging up to $300,000 a booking to use it, according to the suit. That's not a tax rate. That's a rental fee for space the public already owns, charged to whoever can afford the deposit.…
…(cont) Running those two documents against each other, here's what the ledger shows. On one side, a private gaming operation is asking the state to reduce what it owes the public treasury from a rate the legislature already set. On the other side, a private events company is charging the public up to $300,000 to access public property it does not own. One direction, the public's cut goes down on request. The other direction, the public's own asset gets billed back to the public at market rate, no request required, no vote needed.
That's the reconciliation. It isn't that either number is wrong on its face — a 72% rate is what the filing says, and $300,000 a booking is what the suit says. It's that the two numbers move in opposite directions depending on who's asking. When the private side wants a lower number, there's a campaign to get it before Hochul. When the public side wants its own property to generate any return, the answer is apparently a lawsuit after the fact, because nobody asked first.
I don't have a motive to put on that, hon. I've just got the two documents. One's an ask to reduce what's owed. One's a bill nobody remembers approving. Whichever way this plaza case and this casino rate land, it's fair to note that in this city, the request to pay less and the invoice to pay more tend to land on opposite sides of the same public balance sheet — and so far, only one side got a hearing.
“They'll tell you there's no money for the tax base, then turn around and charge the public $300,000 to use a bridge the public already owns. The tax break's for the casino. The bill for the plaza is on whoever can put down 300 grand for one night.”
“The casino industry brings jobs, and that 72% number's before deductions, credits, and abatements — actually I don't have the abatement figure in front of me, so let's just say it's not really 72%, it's just what the rate says on paper.”
The receipts
Swanky Guastavino’s venue illegally seized a public plaza for a decade, charging up to $300,000 per event, a new lawsuit claims.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.