New York, NY – New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Bill de Blasio urged a key political ally on Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to throw his support behind the candidate’s plan to raise taxes on wealthy New Yorkers.
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De Blasio has made the tax hike, which would fund universal prekindergarten, the centerpiece of his campaign. He said that if he is elected in November, he wants the increase in the state’s next budget, which is due in April.
The plan needs the support of the state Legislature and there is skepticism that Cuomo and Albany lawmakers would support a tax hike just months before they come up for re-election.
“My conversations with Gov. Cuomo have been very broad,” de Blasio said at a news conference at an East Harlem early education program. “He’s expressed an openness to this specific proposal. And I think there is going to be a lot of public support and that is going to make a huge difference.”
De Blasio was dismissive of the idea that he should consider delaying the tax hike to a future budget.
“This is a major, major priority,” said de Blasio, the city’s public advocate. “We’re going to work on it immediately. It’s not that I don’t understand there’s a lot of work to do but my goal is get this approved as part of the budget.”
Cuomo, who has endorsed de Blasio, has not committed to supporting the plan or a timetable. His spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
De Blasio’s Republican rival, Joe Lhota, has predicted that the plan will never be approved. Lhota, the former MTA chairman, has said he’d raise the estimated $500 million needed to launch the program by instead making cuts to the city budget.
De Blasio also revealed a previously private personal detail Monday, that his father committed suicide in 1979 when the candidate was a teenager. In a statement, de Blasio’s campaign said his father had terminal cancer at the time.
The statement was aimed at pre-empting a New York Post story about the suicide, which was published a short time later.
De Blasio does not often speak of his father, an Army veteran named Warren Wilhelm, other than to say he struggled with alcoholism and was largely absent from his son’s life. De Blasio, who was born Warren Wilhelm Jr., later took his mother’s maiden name as his last name.
What a jerk! He hasn’t even been elected yet, and wants to sock it to us already!
We are already the highest taxed people in the world.
We would be fools to vote for him.
Sadly, plenty of NYC voters will consider that a winning idea.
VOTE REPUBLICAN IN NOVEMBER – we don’t need Democrats anymore – they speak from two sides of their mouth
Tax hikes, yikes.
Now that’s a surprise!!!!!!!
Time will tell if he’s committing political suicide by calling for hikes. We’ve always believed that a direct call for hikes would be a non-starter but Bill has so far proven that it’s not so. 500 Million compared to our total budget is minuscule and really won’t be that high. He’s proposing to raise it for the highest earners. This won’t affect most people so they’ll continue to vote for him.
So now everybody should vote for him cause the so called עסקנים said so, time to wake up and do what’s good for you not what the so called community leaders say, all they care is for their own interest, come November vote republican unless you want a dinkins #2 for mayor.
Another liberal looking to spend your money. Will drive business and rich people out of nyc and it will become another Detroit. Fool. Unfortunately, this buys votes from the 90% poor schnorrers living here.