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Over the weekend, we looked on in horror as Donald Trump held a fascist rally at Madison Square Garden (MSG), New York City’s oldest operating professional sports arena.
The venue of the rally isn’t the story. But it does exemplify the oligarchical coup happening in slow motion in our country. That’s because MSG receives a special tax exemption worth almost $1billion…and after the owners pocket that tax break? They funnel it into the campaigns -- and rallies -- of other oligarchs who will continue the cycle.
In 1982, New York officials were worried about the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers leaving the city, so New York gave MSG an indefinite exemption on paying property taxes as long as the venue continued to host Knicks and Rangers games.
This has paid off massively for the billionaire Dolan family -- the owners of Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corporation (MSGE). In 2023 dollars, the NYC Department of Finance estimated the tax exemption to be $42.4 million. Since its inception in 1982, the Dolan family has avoided paying $946.7 million in property taxes. Another quirk of the exemption is that MSG is not required to report any data to any government agency -- including how many people it employs or how much they’re paid in wages.1
The current owner and CEO of Madison Square Garden, James Dolan, is no stranger to Donald Trump. In 2016 and 2017, Dolan donated a combined $425,000 to Trump-supporting Super PACs.2,3 In 2002, Dolan even got married at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in south Florida.4
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