Albany pumps the brakes on Mamdani’s free NYC buses. What’s next?

New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani has promised big things for the Big Apple

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

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

open government grocery stores, and more. But those plans would cost billions of dollars

And getting that money is where Mamdani could run into some issues, because it's not entirely up to him

In reality, if he had wanted to accomplish some of these big picture items, he would have had to run for governor

What he wants to do for New York City mostly requires both the approval of the governor and the state legislature

Mamdani's plan to raise that money is to increase the top corporate tax rate and levy a tax

increase on people making over a million dollars a year. But any changes to the tax rates would

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

his Department of Community Safety, a couple other big ticket free buses

He can't do those things without that state revenue. So the governor and the legislature would have to consider

is this a risk that we want to take with the state's tax base

Mamdani does have some support from the state legislature, but Governor Hochul has signaled she's not inclined to raise taxes

Hochul has also pumped the brakes on the free bus plan. City buses are actually controlled by a state agency

It would be the governor who would have to give the green light to her MTA chairperson to say

okay, we can do free buses. And also the state would have to come up with this

seven, $800 million in funding from fare revenue that would be lost

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

You're kind of opening the door to an entirely free transit system

because the same arguments that poor people take the bus, that also holds for the rest of the state's transit systems

Mamdani also has to deal with the New York Financial Control Board. That board started back in 1975, when the city nearly went bankrupt

We just increased spending much faster than the tax revenues came in

By the 1970s, we were starting to have a cratering tax base as we saw flight to the suburbs

major corporations leaving New York City for the suburbs and for southern states

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

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

tax increase. While many have painted Mamdani as a socialist, Jalinas said the one idea Mamdani

has not floated is the one thing that most resembles true socialism. He could have run

on raising the property tax. The property tax in New York City is the only tax that the city can

raise by itself. Mamdani would only need permission of the city council, not state legislature or the

governor. And that would be closer to a traditional view of socialism where everybody pays more

but everybody gets more benefits. But that was not the platform that he ran on. He ran explicitly

on redistribution from wealthier earners and from businesses. And for that, he does need the state

Mamdani will take office on January 1st. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig DeGrelli

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