Bloomberg's Pay to Play Demockcracy

From No Land Grab:

Wanna know how to get on Bloomberg's good side? And it's legal to boot!

Companies with business before the city are among those contributing to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, which has been raising millions of dollars to support some of Mayor Bloomberg’s highest priority initiatives, including anti-poverty programs, public art restoration, housing, and parks.

The list of nearly 100 organizations that donated to the city’s charitable arm between October 2006 and March 2007 shows support for Mr. Bloomberg’s projects from a cross section of industries, including television and film, banking, and telecommunications.
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New York-based corporations and philanthropists are paying more attention to the fund than ever. And while Mr. Bloomberg often says he is not beholden to special interests because he does need campaign contributions, the fund is one way for those with business before government to attempt to get on the mayor’s good side. JPMorgan Chase, for example, is seeking tax breaks for a new headquarters. The Starr Foundation is controlled by Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, who, along with the foundation, was the target of a probe by Eliot Spitzer when Mr. Spitzer was attorney general.

Donors who have interests in the city are not hard to find. Filings going back to October 2004 show that... Forest City Ratner, the developer on the Atlantic Yards project, gave between $250,000 and $499,999.

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No doubt the Mayor and Ratner assure us that is has no bearing on decisions by Bloomberg, or his curious support of Ratner's very bad project. After all Ratner at one time assured us that he didn't make political contributions to avoid the 'appearance of impropriety' (we learned of course he was concerned with the appearance not the impropriety). That of course, requires us to believe that either man has integrity or trustworthiness, a leap of faith I am not able to make.

But a small reminder: who picks up the slack for all these companies getting tax breaks? After all somebody has to pay for Bruce Ratner's subsidies, God knows his lousy projects can't make money themselves...so who is that someone? Its you and me, and the rest of us who aren't making big contributions to Bloomberg's pet causes.