Mayor Vows Funding Where Government Fears To Tread
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark.— New York City’s multibillionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, told a group of the country’s wealthiest individuals and most generous philanthropists that private charity has to “step up and take the lead” to fund research and programs the government declines to.
“There are some controversial areas where government is willing to tiptoe,” Mr. Bloomberg said during a speech last night in this capital city. “But then there are others where the government fears to tread at all. They’re just too highly charged. It’s in areas like these that private philanthropy has to step up and take the lead.”
Mr. Bloomberg cited stem cell research, a cause he has committed millions to, as a prime example. He said he was pleased that several of his staffers volunteered on the pro-stem cell research campaign of Senator-elect Claire McCaskill, a Democrat of Missouri. He said that by restricting federal funding for stem cell research, the government put the “burden of any future research squarely on the shoulders of the private sector.”
Mr. Bloomberg, who ranks as one of the most generous philanthropists in the country, is in high-powered company as one of two keynote speakers at the two-day philanthropy conference held at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library here, which was organized by the online magazine Slate. The other headline speaker is President Clinton, who is scheduled to speak today.
In between Messrs. Bloomberg and Clinton, guests will hear from a press and broadcast mogul and philanthropist, Ted Turner, a co-founder of the Internet provider America Online, Steve Case, and Bill Gates Sr., the father of the Microsoft mastermind and megaphilanthropist.
Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican, joked last night that he had to attend: “When the husband of your senator wants you to show up at a little gathering back in his hometown, you really can’t say no.”
It would be easy to interpret Mr. Bloomberg’s presence at the conference — known as the “Slate 60” because it singles out the 60 most charitable American givers — as another sign that he has ambitions for his own presidential library some day. But his participation illustrates the more complicated calculus of his post-mayoral future.
Mr. Bloomberg has said he plans to finish his term in City Hall and then start a foundation to give away his billions. Adding credibility to that statement, he recently purchased a $45 million, six-story building on East 78th Street, blocks from his Upper East Side home, to house his future foundation.
Last night, in the second-floor hall of the mostly glass presidential library perched above the Arkansas River, Mr. Bloomberg recalled his first brush with charity: His father, a bookkeeper who made $11,000 a year, wrote a $25 check to the NAACP.
He also cited several examples of how private giving is allowing his administration to try experimental programs — such as a planned anti-poverty initiative that will give cash to participants who stay in school or achieve other goals. That would not be politically feasible with public money, he said.
The event was a rare opportunity for the mayor, who likes to give anonymous donations, to tout his own public giving and plug the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, for which he raising $200 million, as a cause worth backing. If he was looking to tap potential donors, there were plenty there last night.
Since leaving the private sector, the mayor has increased donations to for-profit and non-profit organizations across the spectrum. Mr. Bloomberg and his company, Bloomberg LP, the financial and news empire he founded, gave away $143.9 million in 2005 to 987 organizations. That’s up from $26.6 million in 1997.
So far in 2006, he’s given $125 million to reduce smoking in developing countries. While he has denied that he plans to sell his company, if he chooses to, his $5.3 billion net worth will skyrocket.
The mayor in the past 10 months has elevated his profile by inserting himself into national conversations about gun control, immigration, and a host of other issues. He has also partnered with politicians from both major parties on topics ranging from education to the environment and has backed more than half a dozen congressional candidates outside New York.
Many have suggested that his new alliances and vocal positions signal that he wants to seek higher office. But, Mr. Bloomberg could easily join the ranks of Bill Gates Jr., Mr. Clinton, and billionaire Warren Buffett in the philanthropy world.
That would allow him to target his money at issues such as medical research, which he has long supported, and others he’s hammered on while in office, like gun control and tobacco.