Excerpts
Should New York City’s millionaires get to ride the bus for free, or send their children to no-cost day care centers? Should New Yorkers have to prove they are poor in order to live in rent-stabilized apartments?
A fierce debate about who should be able to use government benefits in one of the world’s most expensive cities has animated the mayor’s race in New York in its final stretch, as the two leading candidates offer starkly different approaches to easing the city’s affordability crisis.
The approach that New York City voters choose next month will likely reverberate across the United States, as other cities grapple with their own surging costs.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, has proposed a significant and costly expansion of New York’s social safety net, including free buses and free child care for all, regardless of income.
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Mr. Mamdani wants to go much further, creating a free system for children as young as 6 weeks old, which would include a 3K expansion.
He has said he would raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers to fund the program, which would cost about $6 billion, but has signaled a willingness to consider other funding sources, since Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she is not willing to raise taxes.
Each child care plan show the opportunities and limits of the candidates’ different approaches to affordability.
Mr. Cuomo has argued that voters are being duped by Mr. Mamdani’s sweeping plans, which the former governor has mocked as utopian: “Everything free. Everything. Free transportation, free food, free clothes, free education. Who pays?” he said at a rally shortly before the June primary.
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