New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo may be on the same page when it comes to “right-to-life, pro-assault weapons, anti-gay” Americans being unwelcome in the Empire State. But the two leaders are not seeing eye-to-eye on the proposed funding for de Blasio’s universal pre-K plan, which Cuomo insists is a scheme to line the pockets of his union buddies.
A Democratic Party insider close to Cuomo is quoted by the New York Post as saying:
We’re hearing chatter from people that de Blasio wants to raise the income tax on the rich to use it any way he wants — including paying for labor contracts and raises.
The people who are pushing this are from the Working Families Party. De Blasio is married to them.
The WFP is run, according to the Cuomo ally, by the ultra-liberal Transport Workers Union, Communication Workers of America, and United Federation of Teachers, to name a few. It’s the same coalition that opposes the governor’s $2 billion proposal to cut property, business, and estate taxes to set the stage for re-election.
De Blasio, who was created in Barack Obama’s mold, wants to raise city income taxes on those earning $500,000 or more to generate $530 million a year to cover pre-kindergarten classes for all kids.
Even though Cuomo is himself a liberal Democrat, he is loath to approve a tax hike in an election year. Hence, the charges that de Blasio plans to divert the funds to grease the palms of his union pals.
Phil Walzak, a spokesman for de Blasio, claims that the “tax increase will only be used to fund pre-K and after-school programs for New York City kids,” adding that “anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong, period.”
De Blasio already encountered his first trouble in paradise when the New York Post ran a separate story accusing him of giving “the tony Upper East Side” of Manhattan “the shaft” following Tuesday’s blizzard by leaving that area of the city unplowed:
“He is trying to get us back. He is very divisive and political,” said writer and Life-long Upper East Sider and mom Molly Jong Fast of Mayor de Blasio.
“By not plowing the Upper East Side, he is saying, ‘I’m not one of them.’…”
