Crains New York - October 29, 2012 - (Page 11)

We are pleased to announce the addition of six new attorneys in our New York of¿ce. Complex Business Litigation White Collar Litigation Securities Enforcement and Litigation Global Securities Custody Securities Lending Corporate Law/Corporate Governance Mergers and Acquisitions Securities Filing Employment Law A NY voter asks: Hey, what about me? M sages might be tailored to have a broader appeal. More eligible voters might also exercise their franchise. In the last presidential election, fewer than 62% of eligible voters cast a ballot. In New York 2012 Election state, the participation rate y sister and I talk about the presidenwas 59%; it was 66% in Florida. Was it because voters in tial election a lot. We both care greatly knew mattered about the outcome,and share thoughts about Florida reasonitmy sister’s more? The vote matthe debates, television ads and the big issues. ters and mine doesn’t has to do with The big thing we don’t share is whether our the way the Electoral College opervotes matter. Hers does. She lives in swing-state Florida. She is ates. All states except two allocate bombarded by mailings, radio and TV ads and robocalls. Both their electors on a winner-take-all basis. The candidate who ekes out only candidates show up regularly in her state. Her vote is eagerly a handful of votes more than the othsought by both sides and will make a difference in the outcome. er guy takes all the state’s electoral votes. Remember the mess in Florida I get radio silence because I live in in 2000, when Al Gore, who is gena state that is a reliable prize for Deerally conceded to have won the namocratic presidential candidates. tional popular vote, lost the election The only time I might see either canbecause of the Supreme Court’s indidate in person is if I pay to go to a tercession in the hotly disputed Florifundraiser. They come to New York da results? The winner should not deonly to Hoover up money.The irony pend on a few chads, hanging or not. is that although vast sums will be There are alternatives that have raised here, negligible amounts will been under discussion for years. One be spent in this market. is a total break with the Electoral I’m like the voters in most College system, choosing the winner states—everyone, really, except based on national vote totals. Anoththose in battleground states. For us, er, which grants greater protection to most of the sound and fury pass us small states, would award Electoral by, seen and heard only on television. College votes proportionately to a Current rules mean that both parties I believe this reinforces the hyper- state’s vote totals, perhaps based on ignore the bulk of the electorate in partisanship from which our govern- districts of the House of Representathe general election, concentrating ment suffers. If Mitt Romney had to tives. The winner in each district only on voters in the toss-up states. contest for my vote,and Barack Oba- would take all those electoral votes. These rules effectively disenfran- ma had to care about getting out the I’d like to matter more as a voter. chise Democrats in red states and Democratic vote in Mississippi, And I think my sister would welcome Republicans in blue states. things might be different.Their mes- relief from the onslaught. ALAIR TOWNSEND H Rich get richer, but they make city better edge-fund billionaire John Paulson received worldwide publicity—even a prominent spot on the front page of The New York Times—when it was announced last week he is giving $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy. His gift may be the largest ever to the organization that looks after the park, but it is actually not that unusual. Since 2006, rich New Yorkers have made at least 15 gifts of $100 million or NEW YORKERS’ PHILANTHROPY Total $100 million+ gifts since 2006 Gifts from finance execs Gifts from David Koch University gifts Cultural gifts Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy 15 9 2 6 3 more to universities, cultural institutions and public-policy organizations. This is an overlooked benefit of the way the rich have gotten so much richer in recent decades, even at the cost of the yawning inequality gap in the city. The figures in the chart come from a database run by The Chronicle of Philanthropy,which decided who is and who is not a New Yorker. Only living people were included, to avoid after-death bequests from estates like that of Leona Helmsley. A full list of the people and gifts is available at my CrainsNewYork.com blog. Gifts in the nine figures are a relatively new phenomenon in the world of philanthropy,and it’s no coincidence that they have tracked the surge in wealth among Wall Street, private-equity and hedge-fund executives. Consider the New Yorkers GREG DAVID on the list of über-donors: Mr. Paulson, Peter Peterson, Stanley Druckenmiller, Sandy Weill, Henry Kravis, David Rockefeller, Stephen Schwarzman and George Soros. What would universities do without such people? How about such crucial institutions as the New York Public Library, Lincoln Center and now Central Park? All this is worth pondering because of what is happening in Washington, D.C., and Albany, and at City Hall after there is a new mayor. If President Barack Obama is reelected and has his way, and if a new mayor raises the city income tax by even 1 percentage point, the marginal tax rates paid by the wealthiest people here will jump to 55% of their income. If the favorable treatment for dividends, capital gains and especially carried interest is ended, many of them will see their tax bill skyrocket further. If Mitt Romney is elected and does what he says he plans to do, the charitable deduction for these people will be severely curtailed. They will pay more—maybe a lot more— even with somewhat lower tax rates. Are these billionaires so rich that the tax changes won’t affect their ability and willingness to make such large philanthropic gifts? We just might find out. October 29, 2012 | Crain’s New York Business | 11 http://www.carltonfields.com http://www.carltonfields.com http://www.crainsnewyork.com/40Under40 http://www.CrainsNewYork.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - October 29, 2012

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
ALAIR TOWNSEND
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: BUSINESS OF LAW
THE LIST
CLASSIFIEDS
SMALL BUSINESS
FOR THE RECORD
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - October 29, 2012