Free Courtside Seats and an $18 Million Tax Break

New York's budget is shaped by powerful people. One of them is Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. He is from the Bronx and loves sports. A gambling company gave him and his staff free tickets to Boston Celtics games. The tickets were worth almost $14,000. Soon after, that same company won a tax break worth about $18 million.

The company is Delaware North. It is based in Buffalo and is worth billions. It owns the arena where the Celtics play. It also registers as a lobbying client in New York. That means there are strict rules about gifts. Normally, such a company cannot give more than $15 to a politician.

To get around that limit, the company gave the tickets to a political fund. Heastie helps lead that fund. Because of this, the gift did not count as a personal present. The tickets went to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee. Heastie and at least four staffers watched the game from a luxury suite in March.

After the game, lobbyists met with Heastie. They talked about taxes for slot parlors. One of those parlors is near Rochester. The tax break was not in the first budget drafts. It appeared in the final deal in late May. It lets slot venues keep more of their earnings. Heastie said the whole thing was just fundraising. He said the group raised far more money over the years. He called the news report a hit piece. Since 2015, a related fund has paid over $1 million to sports teams and venues. That list includes the Yankees, Mets, Barclays Center, and Madison Square Garden.