Taxing role
New speaker backed B’way donors in fight
CITY COUNCILMAN Corey Johnson got nearly $16,000 in bundled campaign donations from a Broadway bigwig — right before he delivered a grand performance opposing a proposed tax hike that targeted the fundraiser and other theater owners.
Johnson, whose peers voted him Council speaker on Wednesday, played the role of skeptic at a hearing last year about the city’s plan to increase the tax on the money Broadway theaters make off of selling their air rights.
When the curtain rose at the Jan. 24 hearing, Johnson grilled city officials who testified in support of the hike. The proposal aimed to make Broadway honchos benefiting from skyrocketing real estate prices contribute more to a fund that supports smaller stage productions and boosts diversity in theaters.
While the community board that covers the Theater District backed the proposal, Johnson’s take mirrored that of Broadway’s biggest theater owners.
In the runup to the hearing, Jujamcyn Theaters, the Shubert Organization and the Nederlander Organization hired the firm Duval & Stachenfeld to lobby Johnson about their concerns over the proposal.
Jordan Roth, the president of Jujamcyn Theaters, also collected cash for Johnson. In the two months before and in the days after the hearing, Johnson received $15,750 in campaign contributions — all bundled by Roth.
The collected donations included $1,000 from the Shubert Organization’s president.
In addition to the bundled money, the president and vice president of Nederlander donated a combined $750 to Johnson in late December 2016. Roth also gave Johnson $2,750 in 2015.
For the past 20 years, Broadway theaters — which are landmarked and restricted from redeveloping their properties — have been allowed to sell their air rights.
The money from the tax on the sales goes into the Theater Subdistrict Fund to support small troupes and productions.
Under the proposal, the city’s take from these air rights sales would have risen dramatically to 20%, meaning more money for the fund. It would have also increased the minimum price per square foot on each sale to $346.
At the hearing, Johnson, who represents the Theater District, said the proposed price per square foot was too high, amounting to a 400% jump.
Days after the hearing, Mayor de Blasio’s administration scrapped the proposal after locking horns with the Council over the minimum price per square foot.
Johnson campaign spokesman Chris Coffey said the theater industry is a major employer offering solid, middle-class jobs.
“Corey was proud to support the industry from his first days in the City Council, and he will keep doing that as speaker,” he said.
Roth did not respond to a request for comment.