Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani made several big promises along the campaign trail including free buses and universal childcare.
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New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani has promised big things for the Big Apple
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but can he follow through? If you had free buses, you'd be able to board and disembark from any one of the doors on that bus
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Governor Hochul and I share a commitment to universal child care. Along with free buses and child care, Mamdani has promised to raise the minimum wage
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open government grocery stores, and more. But those plans would cost billions of dollars
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And getting that money is where Mamdani could run into some issues, because it's not entirely up to him
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In reality, if he had wanted to accomplish some of these big picture items, he would have had to run for governor
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What he wants to do for New York City mostly requires both the approval of the governor and the state legislature
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Mamdani's plan to raise that money is to increase the top corporate tax rate and levy a tax
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increase on people making over a million dollars a year. But any changes to the tax rates would
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require approval from state lawmakers and Governor Kathy Hochul He wants the state legislature and the governor to enact billion worth of annual taxes Without those tax hikes he can implement his program his universal child care
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his Department of Community Safety, a couple other big ticket free buses
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He can't do those things without that state revenue. So the governor and the legislature would have to consider
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is this a risk that we want to take with the state's tax base
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Mamdani does have some support from the state legislature, but Governor Hochul has signaled she's not inclined to raise taxes
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Hochul has also pumped the brakes on the free bus plan. City buses are actually controlled by a state agency
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It would be the governor who would have to give the green light to her MTA chairperson to say
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okay, we can do free buses. And also the state would have to come up with this
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seven, $800 million in funding from fare revenue that would be lost
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And that not the only issue on the free bus plan Buffalo Rochester Albany would they also want their own free bus system So there more to think about than just okay the New York City buses can be free
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You're kind of opening the door to an entirely free transit system
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because the same arguments that poor people take the bus, that also holds for the rest of the state's transit systems
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Mamdani also has to deal with the New York Financial Control Board. That board started back in 1975, when the city nearly went bankrupt
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We just increased spending much faster than the tax revenues came in
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By the 1970s, we were starting to have a cratering tax base as we saw flight to the suburbs
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major corporations leaving New York City for the suburbs and for southern states
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So we just ran out of money. That board still exists, but mostly just to make sure the city presents a balanced budget every year
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So will Mondani really be able to keep his big promises? Realistic view is that he purposely asked for a lot more than he knew that he was going to get So just go out and ask for a wild billion figure And then he would say that he happy with getting half of that you know a or billion
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tax increase. While many have painted Mamdani as a socialist, Jalinas said the one idea Mamdani
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has not floated is the one thing that most resembles true socialism. He could have run
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on raising the property tax. The property tax in New York City is the only tax that the city can
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raise by itself. Mamdani would only need permission of the city council, not state legislature or the
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governor. And that would be closer to a traditional view of socialism where everybody pays more
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but everybody gets more benefits. But that was not the platform that he ran on. He ran explicitly
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on redistribution from wealthier earners and from businesses. And for that, he does need the state
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Mamdani will take office on January 1st. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig DeGrelli
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