ALBANY — Forget about using the city budget surplus to fund universal prekindergarten — it’s going to be needed for pay for deals with labor unions, Mayor de Blasio told legislators Monday.
In his first direct admission that the $2.5 billion surplus is targeted to cover yet-to-be negotiated pacts with the unions, the mayor told state lawmakers that Albany should instead approve his plan to fund pre-K with a tax on the wealthy.
De Blasio warned that having “300,000 employees without a contract — by definition that’s going to add additional fiscal stresses.”
All the city unions, including cops and teachers, are working without a contract, most for at least four years. Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused to negotiate any raises unless the unions made concessions such as employee contributions to health care costs. Settling the contracts could cost taxpayers as much as $7 billion if the unions get retroactive pay hikes.
The suggestion of raises puts the mayor at odds with Gov. Cuomo, who negotiated three years of no pay hikes with state workers. The governor has said he won’t tell the mayor what to do on labor but has made it clear he thinks municipalities should rein in costs.
“At some point this will be resolved, and there will be a cost to pay,” de Blasio said. “A cost that should have been handled over years is now going to be handled in many ways in the here and now. So that challenge makes clear to us we are in a troubled fiscal environment.”
De Blasio testified before a joint Senate-Assembly hearing that is reviewing Gov. Cuomo’s $137 billion budget proposal, which includes a competing plan to spend $1.5 billion over five years to expand preschool without raising taxes.
De Blasio pressed state legislators to approve his tax-based plan to fund pre-K, saying a tax hike on city residents earning $500,000 or more would provide the most reliable stream of money.
“Universal pre-K and afterschool programs must have a dedicated funding stream, a lockbox shielded from what we all know is the inevitable give and take of the budgeting process,” de Blasio said.
The appearance, de Blasio’s first as mayor before an Albany committee, drew a standing-room-only crowd of largely sympathetic legislators.
“I want to congratulate you on your bold vision for universal pre-K,” said Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), who also reminded his fellow lawmakers of de Blasio’s landslide election in November.
Despite the friendly crowd, Hizzoner’s plan faces an uphill climb against fellow Democrat Cuomo’s proposal and opposition from Republicans in the state Senate.
“The governor has shown a way to fund the whole thing,” said Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County), who added that a tax on city residents could damage the rest of the state.
De Blasio argued that the city was simply asking for the authority to tax its own citizens and insisted the levy would sunset after five years.
He was accompanied to Albany by several City Council members, including Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who also pressed lawmakers to approve the mayor’s proposal.
“We are not in any way rejecting or demeaning what the governor has put on the table,” Mark-Viverito said. “But we want to fulfill this promise to our city’s working families and children as soon as fully possible. We think the best way to accomplish that is through the very modest tax increase on the well-to-do that the mayor has proposed.”
The mayor’s appearance in Albany came just hours after the de Blasio administration revealed that it was prepared to offer all-day pre-K to 54,000 4-year-olds by this September and to 73,000 children by January 2016.
The administration said it had also identified 4,000 potential classroom sites within city buildings that could be used for preschool and additional locations run by community-based organizations.
Preschool experts called de Blasio’s goal ambitious but achievable.
“Is it a challenge? Yes. Is it impossible? No,” said Sharon Kagan, a professor of early childhood and family policy at Columbia.
Others questioned whether de Blasio could hire enough teachers or find enough space to get the program started.
“How do you see getting this started so quickly?” said Assemblyman William Magnarelli (D-Syracuse). “My understanding is that classroom space, especially in New York City, is very difficult to put together.”
De Blasio insisted he could get the program up and running by September.
“Time waits for no man. We know there is a crying need right now,” he said.
With Corinne Lestch and Erin Durkin
