Bill de Blasio Proposes Higher Taxes on  Wealthy to Pay for Education

October 4, 2012 | New York Times

Bill de Blasio, the New York public advocate, laid out a provocative plan on Thursday to finance education programs by raising income taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents, an early populist salvo in his presumptive campaign for mayor.

Speaking at a breakfast event for a prominent civic group, Mr. de Blasio also attacked a mayoral rival, Speaker Christine C. Quinn of the City Council, for proposing a set of small-business reforms that he dismissed as “a joke,” and he chastised Ms. Quinn for declining to challenge Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on the issue.

Mr. de Blasio’s criticisms were a signal of the intraparty combat that is expected to accompany a competitive, and potentially decisive, Democratic primary in 2013.

But the focus of his speech — education — also proved contentious, with members of the well-heeled audience seemingly cool to his idea of raising taxes to provide more prekindergarten classes and after-school activities for students in grades six through eight.

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