AARP: No we didn’t back Blas tax plan

All week, Mayor de Blasio has been claiming that support from the AARP would boost his long-shot proposal in Albany to impose a “mansion tax” on high-end property sales in New York City.

“We all know that AARP has an extraordinary ability to influence legislators on both sides of the aisle,” he said Wednesday in Albany and repeated that assessment Thursday at a press conference in Midtown.

But on Friday, the powerful lobbying group for seniors said it hasn’t endorsed his proposed 2.5 percent added tax on home sales of $2 million and up to help subsidize rents for low-income seniors.

“AARP fully supports Mayor de Blasio’s efforts to create more affordable housing, including his plan to provide rent subsidies for up to 25,000 seniors,” Beth Finkel, the group’s director in New York, said in a statement. “However, AARP has taken no position on how that plan should be funded.”

She said the group generally doesn’t take positions “on funding mechanisms at the state and local level.”

Asked about the discrep- ancy on WNYC radio, which first broke the story, de Blasio characterized the news as “nuance” and insisted AARP supported his overall goal.

“I certainly will take responsibility for my team if we misunderstand that particular nuance in their position,” he told host Brian Lehrer.

“I understand as a matter of policy they don’t weigh in on specific funding mechanisms. But their members have been extraordinarily supportive.”

The mayor had traveled to Albany this week seeking support for the legislation, which only recently found a sponsor in the state Senate — a sign things were moving in the right direction, according to de Blasio.

“That’s a very positive sign,” he told Lehrer. “So this is going to be a real fight.”

Hizzoner has been pushing the initiative so eagerly that on Thursday he refused to take questions from reporters on any topic other than the mansion tax and cut short the Midtown press conference when reporters tried to ask about other news topics.

He also published an op-ed touting the initiative on Friday.

But the measure doesn’t have enough votes to pass in Albany, and Senate Republicans are saying they’ve already rejected the proposal.

“Senate Republicans support cutting taxes, not raising them,” said spokesman Scott Reif.

We all know that AARP has an extraordinary ability to influence legislators on both sides of the aisle. — Mayor de Blasio AARP has taken no position on how that plan should be funded. Beth Finkel, NY director of AARP, afteraf the mayor claimed her group supported his tax plan to subsidize rents for low-income seniors