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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said hes still considering paying for affordable housing by seeking to raise taxes on wealthy non-residents who own luxury apartments.

One idea, proposed in September by the Fiscal Policy Institute, a union-backed research group, would raise about $665 million annually by requiring part-time New Yorkers to pay surcharges on dwellings valued at more than $5 million. Absentee owners pay no city or state income taxes.

There are a number of different proposals related to housing and affordable housing, but we have not ruled in or ruled out anything, de Blasio, a Democrat, said today during a news briefing in the Bronx.

The New York Post, citing an unidentified person, reported yesterday that officials in the de Blasio administration had ruled out a pied-a-terre tax because of the political challenges of getting it approved in Albany, where Republicans will control the Senate next year. De Blasio said the proposal is among several under consideration by his administration for a legislative agenda to be presented next month.

De Blasio, 53, assumed office Jan. 1 advocating a tax on incomes over $500,000 to pay for universal all-day pre-kindergarten, for which he failed to win state approval. The legislature agreed to give the city $300 million as part of a state-wide preschool program.

The mayor, who must present a preliminary budget for fiscal 2016 by the first week in February, has an agenda that includes 200,000 affordable-housing units, college scholarships, job training and reduced class sizes in schools.

The Real Estate Board of New York, the trade group for an industry that in 2012 accounted for 37 percent of the citys $41 billion tax revenue, opposes such a plan, saying it would harm the citys economy by suppressing investment, cutting jobs and lowering demand for high-priced apartment towers.

The United Federation of Teachers this week called for the city to pay for reduced class sizes by barring non-resident owners of expensive apartments from benefiting from tax abatements.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican, has said he opposes a tax increase on pieds-a-terre. Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who built a campaign treasury of more than $30 million by accepting donations from corporate executives and real-estate developers, campaigned for re-election vowing to reverse the mentality of New York as the tax capital of the nation.

For Related News and Information: Property Pros Fight NYC Tax on Wealthy Absentee Owners: Cities NYC Teachers Union Wants to Tax the Rich for Smaller Classes N.Y. Takeover by Republicans Seen Thwarting De Blasio

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De Blasio Wont Rule Out Pushing Tax Increase on Pied-a-Terres