The public cost of the Yankees’ new “privately funded” stadium goes … you didn’t really think I was going to say “down,” did you?

One of the enduring questions about the new Yankee Stadium, now rising like a supersized doppelganger in the former public park across the street from the House That Ruth Built, is precisely how much the Bronx Bombers’ new playpen will cost taxpayers.

Two summers ago, Mayor Bloomberg announced the project as “the state helping the way, but George [Steinbrenner] footing the bill,” but even then the city admitted that it would be spending $135 million on replacement parks and “infrastructure.” A subsequent Voice analysis of the numerous tax rebates, lease kickbacks, and tax-free financing put the total taxpayer outlay at $374 million; the following March, the subsidy-watch group Good Jobs New York issued a report that upped the ante to $478 million.

Now that all the bills are starting to come in, Good Jobs has released a new report, “Insider Baseball,” and with it a new estimate of the cost to taxpayers… [read more]