State Funded Authority

groups that are de-facto part of BigGov, but have the pretense of being private/independent. see related GSE

usually results in a reduction in the Transparent Society

It is closer to an accounting trick. The Battery Park City Authority's debt now totals $1.1 billion. This means the authority will pay about $1.9 billion in debt service (paying off the interest on the bonds) through 2039, according to one bond document. The authority collects payments from Battery Park City residents and businesses in lieu of taxes. It turns some of the money over to the city - after deducting expenses and debt service costs. In other words, every dollar that goes to the authority's debt service is one dollar that does not go to the city.

from [z2005-06-30-NycPropertyTaxExemptions] - In Fiscal Year 2004, New York State owned almost 1,000 properties in New York City, only 12 of which were not fully tax exempt; together these properties were valued at over $1.8 billion. They cost the city's treasury at least $212.7 million in forgone property tax revenues that year. Five state-controlled "public authorities"--the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), the Dormitory Authority, the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), and the Power Authority-own nearly 4,000 properties in New York City representing a total of over $1.293 billion in lost revenues in FY 2004.

related: Port Authority