De Blasio wants charity’s wealth redistributed, too
Modal Trigger
Mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio wants the Central Park Conservancy to chip in to help the rest of the city's parks.
Photo: Reuters
Call it Bill de Blasio’s tax on giving.
How else do you explain his support for legislation that would force one of the city’s most generous and effective associations, the Central Park Conservancy, to give away 20 percent of its operating funds in this city to other parks? Or his bid to penalize charter schools for the private philanthropic support they receive?
Both these positions fit with the basic assumption at the heart of de Blasio’s bid for mayor: that government officials know how to spend people’s money better than the people who have earned it. Even more dangerous is that he’s apparently eager to impose the same philosophy to redistribute private charitable giving.
Let’s put aside the moral argument for a second. So much of the best this city has to offer exists only because some successful person used his or her wealth to found or fund some program or institution. That’s why we have the Metropolitan Museum of