NYC Council members grill MSG on tax exemption, facial recognition

Members of the City Council grilled representatives of Madison Square Garden on a slew of contentious issues Tuesday — with one pol indicating he would favor a much shorter permit for the arena than both the city and the Garden have proposed.

Councilman Erik Bottcher, whose district includes MSG, took representatives of the arena to task on issues including the use of facial recognition technology to ban lawyers whose firms are involved in litigation against them, along with the Garden’s controversial property tax exemption.

Tuesday’s hearing came as the Council is considering a 10-year permit renewal proposed by the Department of City Planning, the most recent step in the months-long saga the city has been leveraging to ensure MSG commits to a number of improvements to Penn Station, located directly beneath it.

The Garden is seeking a new permit “in perpetuity” ahead of its current 10-year one expiring later this month. Last week, the City Planning Commission approved another 10-year permit for the Garden but with a number of “important commitments” from MSG attached, including collaborating with rail agencies and making several public space improvements.

City Planning executive director Edith Hsu-Chen told the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises the department thinks 10 years is an “appropriate” amount of time. She added that it was an improvement over the deal reached with MSG in 2013, when “there were none of these amenities.”

But Councilwoman Gale Brewer said 10 years would be “too much time.”

“I think four years, with more time if it’s appropriate, is where this Council should go,” she said.

Bottcher was similarly skeptical of MSG’s ask for a permanent permit, questioning whether the fixes required by City Planning were “sufficient” to justify granting one in perpetuity. He also pressed the MSG panel on whether it was “fair that such a profitable enterprise should not pay property taxes to the people of New York.”

Last week a report by the Independent Budget Office found that the city has lost nearly $1 billion due to the Garden’s 41-year-old tax exemption.

Richard Constable, executive vice president for MSG Entertainment, repeatedly refused to answer questions about the lost tax revenue during the hearing. When asked by Bottcher whether MSG still employs its controversial facial recognition technology, Constable said they abide by all state, federal and local laws, which Bottcher took as a “yes.”

Bottcher also revived the possibility of MSG eventually moving to make way for an entirely new Penn Station, something residents, transit advocates and the local community board have long been calling for. Those demands became more pronounced after an MTA report last month found that the Garden and Penn Station were no longer compatible.

But MSG reps rejected any chance of relocating.

“I think it’s the best location than any arena in the world could possibly be,” said Joel Fisher, another executive veep for MSG Entertainment. “Even discussing the Garden anywhere else, it just should be a nonstarter.”

The special permit process will wrap up in the next month and a half or so, according to Bottcher. The final step is a vote by the City Council, though if the body makes any modifications, it will have to refer them back to City Planning.