Yankees Hit With $26.9 Million Luxury Tax

Yes, I'm a Yankee hater for life. What New England born man or woman isn't? Donning your first Red Sox cap is a right of passage synonomous with wearing your first pair of Huggies. Where I come from you are either a Sox fan or you don't belong.

So you can see how my Yankee directed frustration has come to be. In a multi-team town where fans flip-flop like the changing of the winds they've done it again. By "they", I mean the Yankees, that oh so recession proof nemesis of my beloved Sox. Or are they? Please see the newsday.com post below.

"It was very clear for a long time that if the New York Yankees did not secure a new stadium, they would be forced to relocate from the Bronx," Levine said after the hearing that delved into tax-exempt financing of the Yankees' new $1.3-billion stadium, now under construction.

New York City officials, intent on keeping the team, brokered the tax-exempt bond financing plan - called Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT - that uses state tax laws and the federal tax code to make it easier for the Yankees to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars more cheaply, and remain in the Bronx.

Let me see if I can understand this. The Yankees do not have the financing to build their own stadium so they need to get a $1.3 billion tax exemption on the city ( let me remind those of you who have never lived in NYC, you pay city tax as well as state tax, on top of a riduculous luxury tax for particular owned items.... that is unless your the Yankees). All of this is done to free up hundreds of millions for the bronx spenders, I mean bombers to do what they do best. Ruin the competitive spirit of the game by spending almost 1/2 a billion dollars on 3 players of the money that apparently they didn't have when bargaining for their new stadium location. Hmmmmm.

Way to go guys! I can't wait to celebrate.

J of VA 11:22AM December 26, 2008