Lower Manhattan's community board, representing one of the wealthiest areas of the city, say they know the best way to avoid proposed cuts to education: keep an income tax surcharge—the so-called "millionaire's tax"—on the state’s top earners.

“We think it’s right, we think it’s equitable, and we think it’s necessary,” Community Board 1 chair Julie Menin said during a press conference on Wednesday. “We are simply not going to stand by when there is a simple fix on the table.”

Large class sizes are a major concern being voiced by opponents of the cuts. Class sizes in the city are estimated to increase by 11 percent next year, said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, who stood with Menin at the press conference, held on the steps of Tweed Courthouse.

“Children and their education are at risk,” Mulgrew said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal cuts $1.4 billion in state funding to New York City for education in fiscal year 2012, but does not extend the so-called “millionaires tax.” The tax affects individuals who earn more than $200,000 and couples making $300,000, according to the governor’s office.

CB1 passed a resolution Tuesday calling on Cuomo and the state legislature to renew the tax and funnel the money to schools.

Citing income disparities in the city and rising class sizes, the resolution calls the extension “a fiscal and moral imperative.” The one dissenting vote came from Marc Ameruso, who said politicians had gotten the state into a bad position by wasting money.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is behind the governor’s plan to let the tax expire. “If you want to drive business out, you raise taxes,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “That’s just not a good strategy right now. Sometimes you can raise taxes, sometimes you have to lower them.”

Cuomo promised not to raise taxes, the mayor added, and he supports that commitment.

Bloomberg’s budget proposal funnels additional city money toward education to make up for part of the proposed state cuts, but also calls for 6,166 teaching positions to be eliminated in fiscal year 2012—most through layoffs.

At least two-dozen parents and special education professionals attended CB1’s March meeting, held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, some waiving signs emblazoned with “Babies can’t vote, but we can!”

“I think it sends the wrong message to the children of our city,” said CB1 member Dennis Gault, who is both a public school parent and teacher.

Gault added that making cuts to education while letting the tax surcharge expire sends “the wrong message” to parents..

“It says that we don’t prioritize their education, that we don’t prioritize their future, and we don’t prioritize the future of our country,” Gault said, speaking at the Wednesday press conference.

Not all budget proposals would have the tax extension expire. The state Assembly's budget proposal calls for extending the tax provisions, but raising the income threshold so that it only impacts those earning $1 million or more, according to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's office.

April 1 is the deadline for state lawmakers to reconcile all the proposals and approve a final budget.

-Matt Dunning contributed reporting to this article.