It's been just under a week since de Blasio was sworn in as mayor, and it looks like tension between City Hall and Albany is already starting to mount, with universal pre-Kindergarten—and how to fund it—throwing the first punch.
Well before he became the Chosen Candidate, de Blasio plugged universal pre-K as one of the cornerstones of his mayoral campaign, and he wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers to fund it. Cuomo, meanwhile, is gearing up for his own re-election campaign next November, and he's pushing to cut taxes, even on the wealthiest Richie Riches in the Empire State. And though de Blasio seems to have prepared for resistance from Albany with this proposal, the governor may throw him a curveball in tomorrow's State of State speech by allocating state budget funds for universal pre-kindergarten, sans de Blasio's tax increase plan. Which, as Capital New York notes, could have put Blasio in an awkward position:
The pre-K plan could serve to defuse a potentially awkward political situation for Cuomo, whose pledge to pursue tax cuts has put him on a potential collision course with newly elected mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio's signature proposal is a universal pre-K plan funded by a tax hike on high-earning city residents. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate co-majority leader Jeffrey Klein support the de Blasio plan. The Senate's Republican leadership supports at least the idea of pre-K, but not the tax increase the mayor's plan calls for.
A Cuomo announcement that he will fund the pre-K proposal in the state's $140 billion budget would force de Blasio either to accept the governor's plan instead of his own or to continue to push for the tax even though a key part of his goal had very conspicuously been met without it.
Cuomo hasn't confirmed whether or not he'll be pushing for universal pre-K—though he has voiced support for the move, if not de Blasio's preferred method of raising revenue for it—the mayor says he won't back down on a tax increase on the wealthy, even with funds from Albany. "The governor has made a very clear commitment to pre-K, and I commend him for it,” de Blasio said at an event yesterday, while flanked by top union leaders. “That is different from reaching every child in New York City here and now. We don’t want a phase-in. We don’t want a someday.”
Intrigued by this battle of political power and post-and-pre-election brawn? Will there be a fistfight? De Blasio's got an edge on Cuomo in terms of height, but Cuomo works out in a sweet man cave. Anything could happen.
