When it comes to the need to fund universal Pre-K, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio are both “right on the money,” though they differ on the best means of getting it.
Linking this specific program to a specific revenue source may have been de Blasio’s tactical error, because it lets the rich off the hook of their moral debt, muddles the issue of their responsibility and encourages the perception of a split between the state and city’s political camps. Whether or not the perception is accurate almost doesn’t matter. Confusion and delay have done their dirty work.
The tax liability of the wealthiest Americans has been slashed by almost two-thirds since the 1950s. The mayor’s proposal for an increase of half of one percent is extremely modest, but you’d never know it from the resisters, who practically accuse the mayor of being a revolutionary bent on overthrowing the greatest Democracy on earth. The proposed tax increase, targeting New Yorkers whose incomes are at least and often much more than 10 times those of average salaried workers would have a tiny, indeed invisible effect on their way of life.
Let us not “soak the rich.” Fair enough. But by the same token let’s finally and at long last halt their soaking of the rest of us!
Ron Isaac
Fresh Meadows
