A Day Late and 1.3 Billion Dollars Short

Years after agreeing to subsidize the living bejesus out of the New York Yankees for their new stadium, someone in New York government has finally woken up and started asking questions:

New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky wants the New York Yankees to disclose how many jobs the team's new publicly financed stadium will create and what it will do to make games accessible to ``people of all economic levels" . . .

The assemblyman also seeks details on how the team plans to assure that people of all economic means can go to games, the cost and value of a luxury suite for city officials and an explanation for discrepancies over the assessed value of land the stadium will be built on.

This is pandering, of course. If Brodsky or anyone else had any interest in really investigating what the taxpayers are getting for their money, they would have asked these kinds of questions long ago. Now, as it becomes crystal clear how much of a boondoggle New Yankee Stadium is -- how posh, how exclusive, and how inaccessible the place will be for working stiffs -- many like Brodsky will work hard to evade the backlash and say that they were in the minority of voices trying to protect the good people of New York. The same Dick Brodsky who, according to the article, cast many votes in favor of the project over the past several years.

How about this: the next time a billion dollar business like the Yankees comes asking the government for billions more in subsidies, someone think to ask what's in it for the taxpayers first.