Friday, July 18, 2008

Mayor Bloomberg’s Loose Change?

The New York Times has reported today that Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s wealth has nearly doubled to perhaps as much as $20 billion. The Times story today calculates Bloomberg’s current wealth at between $16-20 billion. It points out that this means “The mayor can finance one-quarter of New York City’s budget all by himself or the entirety of what the United States spends each year on foreign aid or space exploration.” It also means that maybe he doesn’t fully appreciate all the public subsidy dollars we are putting into the pocket of wealthy Mr. Ratner for Atlantic Yards. If we ballpark/lowball the still not completely known Atlantic Yards subsides at $2.4 billion and figure the mayor’s wealth at the low $16 billion end, then the tax-payer funded Atlantic Yards subsidies come out to 15% of the mayor’s wealth.

See the New York Times: “For Bloomberg, Another $10 Billion or So Doesn’t Count for Much” By SAM ROBERTS Published: July 18, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/nyregion/18mayor.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

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