Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio may agree New York City needs universal pre-kindergarten, but you won’t hear the governor take up how to pay for it when he delivers his State of the State Address on Wednesday.
“It’s a broader conversation with the Legislature once we all identify the full agenda for the year, the full sources for the year, where are they on this tax-cut proposal,” Cuomo told reporters at the State Cap Monday
what he said is a $2 billion tax-relief plan for the entire state. “So it’s a bigger conversation — what is New York City going to wind up getting, what are other cities going to get?”
Cuomo saying pre-K funding won’t be in his big speech runs counter to
that he would take up the plan, which de Blasio wants to fund with a tax increase on the wealthy which only Albany can approve.
The newly inaugurated mayor joined with supporters of his UPKNYC campaign at an early childhood learning center in East Harlem around the same time as Cuomo addressed the press in the Red Room.
Unlike in the past, our Ken Lovett notes, Cuomo did not absolutely rule out de Blasio’s call for the state to authorize the city to hike its income tax on the wealthy to pay for the expanded programs.
But Cuomo made it clear as he unveiled an election-year relief plan that he believes New York’s taxes need to be lowered, not increased — something he has said in the past when talking about de Blasio’s proposal.
“I am in agreement with the mayor that pre-K is the direction this state has to head,” Cuomo said. “There’s no doubt that pre-k is the way to go and that it should be accelerated. And I think we are going to have unanimity on that…
“Once we get there on the goal, the question becomes, ‘How do we pay for it?'” Cuomo continued. “And that’s going to be a broader conversation with the Legislature when everything else is on the table.”
De Blasio, per our Jennifer Fermino, said Cuomo hadn’t told him pre-K specifics would be laid out in Wednesday’s speech — and called the issue at hand both critical and local.
The mayor said he considers Cuomo “an ally and a friend and we’re going to work together very well. He has a vision for state taxes and I respect that vision. We’re talking about the ability of the people of New York City to tax themselves. This is about city taxes, not state taxes.”
As far as the idea of using surplus state revenues to partially prop up a pre-K program, de Blasio showed scant enthusiasm.
“We don’t want to do this year by year. We don’t want half measures. We don’t want partial funding,” he said.
“If there’s other resources available in Albany, I assure you we have plenty of other needs for them.”
IMAGES: GOVERNOR’S OFFICE LIVESTREAM SCREEN SHOT; MICHAEL SCHWARTZ/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
