#De Blasio bashes Cuomo’s plea for wealthy Hamptonites to return to NYC

Mayor Bill de Blasio took a shot at Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday for trying to lure the wealthy back to New York with the promise of tax breaks — and said he would like to raise taxes on the rich if federal coronavirus aid doesn’t come through.

Hizzoner’s remarks came days after Cuomo said he was begging rich New Yorkers who fled to their vacation homes during the coronavirus pandemic to return — and was even offering to cook them dinner.

“To the point about the folks out in the Hamptons, I have to be very clear about this, we do not make decisions based on the wealthy few,” de Blasio told reporters during his daily press conference Thursday. “I was troubled to hear this concept that because wealthy people have a set of concerns about the city that we should accommodate them — that we should build our policy and approaches around them.”

“That’s not how it works around here anymore,” the mayor continued. “This city is for New Yorkers, this city is for people who live here, work here, fight to make this place better, fight through this crisis.”

“There’s a lot of New Yorkers who are wealthy, who are true believers in New York City, and will stand and fight with us — and there’s some who may be fair-weather friends,” he added. “But we must build our policies around working people.”

De Blasio ended his not-veiled shot at Cuomo by again backing calls from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx) and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) for a new tax on the Empire State’s well-off as Albany stares down a potential $30 billion hole in its budget over the next two years.

The governor infuriated his left flank at a press conference in Manhattan on Monday when he dismissed calls for boosting taxes on the rich to stave off a potential 20 percent cut to major programs, like school funding.

“I literally talk to people all day long who are now in their Hamptons house who also lived here, or in their Hudson Valley house, or in their Connecticut weekend house, and I say, ‘You got to come back! We’ll go to dinner! I’ll buy you a drink! Come over, I’ll cook!’” the Democratic governor said Monday.

“They’re not coming back right now. And you know what else they’re thinking? ‘If I stay there, I’ll pay a lower income tax,’ because they don’t pay the New York City surcharge,” he added, noting the wealthiest 1 percent of the Empire State’s population picks up roughly 50 percent of the state’s tax burden.

Hizzoner also rejected calls for City Hall to try to lure back the wealthy who fled the city for suburban environs during the coronavirus outbreak, arguing that the potentially lost residents are replaceable.

“I think you’ll see a certain number of people who leave and at the appropriate time — after there’s a vaccine — will come back. I think you’ll see some people decide they want a different kind of lifestyle, I think those people will be replaced by other people coming in,” de Blasio said. “I think that pattern will start again over the next couple of years.”