By DAVID SEIFMAN, City Hall Bureau Chief
Last updated: 8:01 am
July 24, 2008
Posted: 3:46 am
July 24, 2008
Adding immense firepower to his unyielding war on smoking, Mayor Bloomberg teamed up yesterday with someone even wealthier than he is - Microsoft founder Bill Gates - to pump an extra $375 million into the global campaign to eradicate the lethal habit.
"I'm sure this is just the first of many things we can do together," declared Gates, providing a hint of what could become one of the most powerful joint philanthropic forces in the world.
Gates announced he'd be contributing $125 million over five years to convince governments in developing nations, especially in Africa, to adopt proven tobacco-control policies.
Bloomberg, meanwhile, upped his ante by an extra $250 million.
Speaking before an audience of more than 300 in Midtown, Gates said that his foundation, which specializes in battling diseases such as AIDS and malaria in poor countries, had been thinking about what to do about smoking when Bloomberg beat him to the punch in 2006 by announcing a $125 million worldwide anti-smoking campaign.
"That was a huge milestone," recalled Gates. "We thought, let's design our work to be complementary to that."
By then, Gates and Bloomberg had already formed a friendship. In fact, Gates donated $51 million to the Department of Education to set up 67 small schools here.
In November, while attending a climate conference in Seattle, Bloomberg dropped by Gates' home for dinner and Deputy Mayor Patti Harris, who'll be overseeing the mayor's foundation when he leaves office in 2010, has been getting tips from Gates' aides.
Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, said the combination of Gates and Bloomberg is a force to be reckoned with.
"They bring a phenomenal amount of resources to bear," he said. "People like to follow the wealthiest people on the planet. They're going to get a lot of other people thinking about they problems they concern themselves with."
Which is precisely the mayor's game plan.
"What we're really trying to do is to leverage our monies and get governments behind it," explained Bloomberg. "In the end, governments are much bigger than the cigarette companies."
