Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who misplaced the Democratic major for mayor of New York Metropolis to Zohran Mamdani by important margins and is now contesting as an unbiased, is second within the race to clinch the mayor’s title within the largest metropolis in the US.
Mamdani received on a message of affordability, however Cuomo has slammed his plans as excessive and never possible. Al Jazeera did an evaluation of Cuomo’s financial insurance policies to see what he has to supply for New Yorkers.
Advisable Tales
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Housing
Cuomo – who solely moved into New York Metropolis in September 2024 after dwelling in Westchester, a suburban neighborhood north of the town – has promised to construct over the subsequent decade half one million new flats, two-thirds of which will probably be “inexpensive”. The plan provides tax incentives to personal builders to construct extra residential developments. It additionally says it should loosen zoning legal guidelines to advertise office-to-residential conversions.
Nonetheless, a lot of what he’s touting is already metropolis coverage.
New York launched an office-to-housing programme in 2020 underneath former Mayor Invoice de Blasio, adopted by reforms final 12 months to hurry up conversions underneath incumbent Eric Adams.
Based on a report from Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander, who additionally ran within the primaries however has since endorsed Mamdani, these initiatives have already produced 44 conversions. Initiatives completed or underneath manner are anticipated to create as many as 17,400 models citywide – largely studios and one-bedroom flats – together with one of many largest office-to-housing conversions within the nation in Decrease Manhattan.
Cuomo’s plan to increase housing choices throughout the town additionally faucets into publicly owned land, together with vacant tons, to permit for improvement of latest housing and mixed-use improvement – the identical as each different main candidates, Mamdani, a former State Meeting member, and Adams.
Cuomo needs to pump $2.5bn into public housing over the subsequent 5 years, which might be a 75 p.c enhance from the town’s present funding. For housing protections, he needs so as to add extra legal professionals within the metropolis’s housing courtroom system to assist renters with points like tenant harassment and illegal eviction and supply extra housing vouchers to assist deal with homelessness.
Nonetheless, Cuomo’s historical past says in any other case. When he was governor, he pushed the state to chop funding for a rental voucher programme known as Benefit. The cuts from Albany, the state capital, left Metropolis Corridor no selection however to chop the programme altogether.
One of many few new concepts from Cuomo, who has been US secretary of housing and concrete improvement previously, is known as “Zohran’s Regulation”, a jab on the almost definitely subsequent mayor of New York. The brand new legislation would put in place revenue limits on those that are looking for rent-stabilised flats throughout the town, which account for about half of the rental housing inventory.
Cuomo stated the legislation wouldn’t penalise those that see their incomes enhance whereas already dwelling in a rent-stabilised unit.
New York Metropolis’s rent-stabilisation programme was by no means designed with sure revenue ranges in thoughts. It was supposed to manage the broader housing market and defend residents from lease worth surges that market-rate flats face in occasions of housing shortage.
“I feel that’s been the playbook all alongside, sort of choose a battle, steal an thought, ship much less ambitiously than New Yorkers really want or deserve,” Adin Lenchner, founding father of the New York primarily based political consultancy Carroll Road Campaigns informed Al Jazeera.
Transit
Cuomo’s most bold proposal is to convey New York Metropolis’s transit system underneath the management of the town itself. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which oversees subways, buses and commuter railroads, has been underneath state jurisdiction for the reason that company was created in 1968. That construction provides the governor disproportionate energy over the operations of the nation’s largest transit system.
Shifting management to Metropolis Corridor could be a steep problem as a result of a lot of its funding comes from state-collected taxes and revenues. And even when it have been to occur and Cuomo would need to enhance the town’s tax price to pay for it, he would nonetheless want a buy-in from the governor, who both accepts or denies the town’s proposed tax price.
That funding dynamic is a key purpose why Mamdani’s free-bus proposal has drawn scepticism. Implementing it will demand coalition-building and leverage in Albany, which critics have stated are greatest used for different urgent points like common childcare.
As a state lawmaker, Mamdani was in a position to assist champion a free-bus pilot programme, however increasing such an initiative citywide could be way more sophisticated from the mayor’s workplace with out management of the MTA, a key weak point within the Mamdani marketing campaign that Cuomo has tried to capitalise on.
Cuomo, alternatively, will not be pushing without spending a dime transit fairly like Mamdani however has recommended he would think about some free routes. He additionally stated he would increase entry to what’s known as the honest fares programme, which provides discounted charges to low-income New Yorkers.
Cuomo’s push to say metropolis management of the MTA additionally comes with a reasonably chequered political historical past.
Throughout his time as governor, he was often accused of weaponising the state’s authority over transit in opposition to then-Mayor de Blasio, taking credit score for successes whereas deflecting blame for service breakdowns onto Metropolis Corridor. The tug-of-war over duty for transit efficiency has lengthy been some extent of rivalry between Albany and Metropolis Corridor.
Cuomo does have a observe document of delivering on main transportation initiatives. Below his watch, a subway line expanded, the long-delayed development of one other subway line started and Penn Station, one of many metropolis’s largest transit hubs, started a considerable revitalisation. He additionally oversaw the rebuilding of LaGuardia Airport.
Lencher identified that Cuomo proudly took credit score for these wins however when the town’s subway system confronted widespread delays in 2017 throughout the development – colloquially known as the summer season of hell, wherein there have been fixed tools failures and the worst on-time efficiency of any mass transit system on this planet – Cuomo stated it was “the town’s MTA”.
Jobs
Cuomo has pitched a jobs plan that he has known as the $1.5bn 5-Borough Financial Transformation Capital Fund, which might fund initiatives everywhere in the metropolis. He’s additionally proposing an innovation hub that may give grants to start-ups and supply them tax exemptions if they will show they will present job development alternatives to the town.
He’s additionally including a 90-day “fast-track regulatory evaluation”, a promise to chop pink tape for enterprise improvement. Each of his rivals have made related guarantees, however Mamdani’s is concentrated on the small-business economic system.
Cuomo’s plan for workforce coaching and improvement programmes contains increasing current coaching and apprenticeship programmes for individuals who need to pursue jobs in fields like healthcare.
Whereas he has provided to advertise extra coaching programmes that may assist with “preparation for jobs that don’t require a university diploma”, he hasn’t provided any particulars about what that may be. Representatives for Cuomo didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s request for extra particulars.
Taxes
In 2021, Cuomo was behind one of many largest tax will increase on the ultrawealthy in New York state’s historical past. His administration raised the company tax price by 0.75 p.c. He additionally raised the taxes for these making $1m to $2m to 9.65 p.c from 8.82 p.c and in-built two new tax brackets: For these making $5m to $25m, it was 10.3 p.c, and 10.9 p.c for these making greater than $25m yearly.
His new plan as mayor contains no tax on suggestions for restaurant employees and eliminating revenue tax for New Yorkers making at or lower than 200 p.c of the federal poverty degree – $31,300 yearly for a single-person family and $64,300 for a household of 4.
For rich New Yorkers, he stated he would enhance the edge for the mansion tax, an extra tax for an actual property transaction, to $2.5m, up from its present degree of $1m.
His deliberate tax cuts are elevating questions amongst consultants about how he would pay for his proposals.
Not like Mamdani, Cuomo has not supplied an in depth plan on how he intends to pay for his platform, and Adams has his personal current document to level to, together with elevated tax collections and decreased spending.
“They [Mamdani’s campaign] all the time get requested how are you going to pay for it [Mamdani’s policy proposals]. Cuomo and other people to the appropriate of him don’t face that very same line of questioning,” Kaivan Shroff, a New York State delegate for the Democratic Nationwide Committee and senior adviser to the Institute for Schooling, informed Al Jazeera.
“The fact right here is that [the Cuomo campaign] has provide you with a plan to have a plan.”
