The city has hidden more than $10 million in infrastructure costs for the Hudson Yards development project in the budgets of other agencies, the New York Daily News reported.
The mammoth project on the Far West Side will cost the city far more than projected, the News said. Between cost overruns for the extension of the 7 line to 11th Avenue — whose cost has ballooned by $3 million in the last few months — and the cost of interest on the bonds that are being used to finance the Hudson Yards project, the city will be on the hook for more than $500 million, the News said.
In order to maintain the appearance that the project is still under its originally projected $3 billion budget, items that relate directly to the Hudson Yards are being classified as belonging to other budgets. For instance, an item in the Department of Environmental Protection’s budget labeled “Hudson Yards Water and Sewer Reconstruction,” earmarks $48 million for new water and sewer lines clearly intended for the Far West Side development, according to the News.
“By 2025, $2.5 billion [in surplus] will be enough to pay the salaries of more than half of the NYPD’s uniformed officers,” then-Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff told the City Council in 2005. [NYDN]