Obama Courts N.Y. Donors After Tax Speech

President Barack Obama was expected to meet wealthy New York donors, including investment bankers, at a campaign fundraiser tonight, hours after calling for new taxes on top earners to help narrow the budget deficit.

The president is scheduled to speak to a gathering of 60 contributors tonight at a $35,800-per-ticket event at the New York home of Ralph Schlosstein and Jane Hartley.

Schlosstein is chief executive officer of Evercore Partners Inc. Hartley is chief executive officer and co-founder of the economic and political advisory firm Observatory Group LLC.

Roger Altman, Evercore’s founder and chairman who was deputy Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, co- hosted the event, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t authorized to discuss it on the record.

Evercore was one of the firms advising AT&T Inc. on the $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA, which the U.S. Justice Department filed suit on Aug. 31 to block.

Earlier today, Obama delivered a speech from the White House Rose Garden in which he called for raising taxes on people with incomes of $1 million or more per year, as part of plan for $3 trillion in deficit cuts over a decade. He previously proposed limiting deductions for taxpayers in the top income brackets.

The ticket price for tonight’s event includes a $5,000 maximum contribution to Obama’s re-election fund and a $30,800 annual maximum to the Democratic National Committee.

Obama arrived in New York in the early evening and is to stay through Sept. 21 to attend the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He plans to attend additional fundraisers during his stay.