Cold-cocking an unpopular jerk may win cheers, but it’s not adult behavior. Yet state Senate Dems are pushing to revoke Madison Square Garden’s tax abatement simply to slap its much-hated chief, James Dolan.
This comes on top of the drive to pull its liquor license over Dolan’s ban on attorneys who are in active litigation against him or the Garden.
Killing the tax abatement would cost MSG’s owners around $42 million, which state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal’s (D-Manhattan) bill would send to the MTA. That’s a lot of harm to folks whose only sin is letting Dolan run the Garden.
Especially since the current controversy (the ban and the use of facial recognition technology to enforce it) is being litigated in state court, where Dolan seems likely to lose.
No, that doesn’t address the other antics that make Dolan widely hated, but laws targeting individuals because they’re despised are obscene even if they somehow pass constitutional muster.
That is, Hoylman’s proving himself as much of a jerk as he claims Dolan is, with the added stink of undermining basic fairness just to score some cheap political points.
