Mayor de Blasio on Tuesday embraced a new rough-and-tumble approach to getting Albany behind his controversial universal-pre-K plan — vowing an intense fight even as a key legislative ally jumped ship.
Speaking at Bethany Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Hizzoner struck back hard at state Senate co-leader Dean Skelos (R-LI), who said he won’t allow a vote on the city’s bid to hike taxes on the rich to fund pre-K.
“The gauntlet’s been thrown down in Albany. We will respond,” the mayor told nearly 200 ministers and advocates.
“This is going to be a profound fight, and it is a fight: both about the substance of the issue and about democracy.”
At one point, de Blasio even portrayed the battle over pre-K as a life-and-death issue.
“People have to feel like this is about their survival and their children’s survival — because in fact it is,” he said.
While de Blasio was turning up the rhetoric dial, state Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Weschester) — one of the first Albany lawmakers to back the mayor’s pre-K plan — was walking back his support.
Klein, an independent Democrat who co-leads the Senate, reversed course one day after saying he would stall the state budget if de Blasio’s pre-K plan wasn’t included.
“I don’t think we’re holding up the budget over universal pre-K,” Klein said Tuesday, while affirming his backing for the plan.
Gov. Cuomo has said he would dedicate as much funding for the city’s pre-K program as it needs. But his proposal falls short of what the city would raise through a tax hike on those earning $500,000 or more.
“There’s a gap,” said Klein. “So now it’s up to us to come up with the money or adopt the mayor’s plan.”
After the Brooklyn event, the mayor said, “I am miffed because I had spoken with Senator Skelos several times, and I understood there would be ongoing discussions to see if we could work on a plan to go forward together.
“We’re going to use every recourse we have — legal or otherwise — to guarantee a vote.”