With 'Soul Mate,' Mayor Unveils Priorities

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday unveiled the third annual list of City Hall's top six state and federal priorities.

The credit-card-size "New York City Card," which was handed out to guests at a Midtown luncheon of business and political leaders, is intended to encourage influential political donors to press candidates to pursue the city's interests.

The goals on this year's card include obtaining more homeland security funding for New York; securing health care funding for workers and residents sickened in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001; enacting tax breaks and increasing funding for public housing; improving infrastructure; passing legislation to curb greenhouse gases, and securing approval to use $2 billion in funds earmarked for Lower Manhattan after September 11 to fund transit improvements. Last year's list included easing immigration restrictions and loosening the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which regulates corporate accounting practices, but those priorities were replaced by securing additional infrastructure funding. The other five goals were also deemed priorities last year.

Previous goals have included stopping congressional efforts to limit the use of eminent domain and getting Albany to raise the cap on charter schools.

Governor Schwarzenegger of California spoke at the event, and said he admired the policymaking approach of his "soul mate," Mr. Bloomberg.

Other guests included the president and CEO of CBS, Leslie Moonves; an ABC news anchor, Barbara Walters; a former Massachusetts governor, William Weld; Mayors Dinkins and Koch, and a potential 2009 mayoral candidate, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

"I know each of you contributes heavily to civic causes and political campaigns, and if we combine our access and our influence, we can really make an enormous difference in the city,"Mr. Bloomberg told the crowd.