Gov. Hochul’s Payments stadium handout is the present that retains on giving — to billionaires

Seems masterminding a present to New York vitality billionaire and Buffalo Payments proprietor Terry Pegula of $850 million in taxpayer money to fund a spankin’ new stadium was not Gov. Kathy Hochul’s greatest concept. 

Because the handout, the workforce’s worth has skyrocketed.

It was value $3.4 billion on the time of the 2022 giveaway, however has since climbed to $5.8 billion. 

After an NFL rule change letting personal fairness purchase stakes in groups, Pegula has bought two 10% chunks of the Payments: one to Arctos Companions, one other to a consortium led by NBA legend Vince Carter (a dunkmaster now posterizing the New York taxpayer).

For these retaining rating at residence, that’s $1.16 billion to Pegula.  

Who may have seen this coming?

A state authorities makes a deal handing public monies to a sharp-eyed, mega-successful businessman who then turns round and leverages the handout to line his pockets.

Oh, wait: Solely anybody able to primary reasoning. 

Sure, it’s not fairly as crooked because the Charlie Tebele affair.

Bear in mind him? He’s the COVID-test baron whose household donated practically $300,000 to Hochul’s conflict chest; Tebele’s agency then obtained a crooked contract that did nearly equal fiscal hurt to the Empire State.

Although Pegula did donate to the Cuomo-Hochul marketing campaign in 2014, this transfer seems extra like Hochul merely caving — as she caves on points massive and small, from crime to congestion pricing — as a result of Pegula threw a tactical mood tantrum and threatened to tug up stakes.

(And perhaps, as a Buffalonian herself, letting hometown boosterism get the higher of her. She insists her husband’s work for the Payments’ concessionaire had nothing to do with it.) 

Regardless of the trigger, the outcome is similar as all of her insurance policies: 

Extra ache for the already hurting common Empire Stater and extra pleasure for the linked fats cats.