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 impartial, is second within the race to clinch the mayor’s title within the largest metropolis in the USA.
Mamdani gained 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.
Really useful 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 town – has promised to construct over the subsequent decade half one million new flats, two-thirds of which might be “reasonably priced”. The plan provides tax incentives to personal builders to construct extra residential developments. It additionally says it’s going to loosen zoning legal guidelines to advertise office-to-residential conversions.
Nevertheless, 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 yr 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 items 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 broaden housing choices throughout town additionally faucets into publicly owned land, together with vacant heaps, 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 desires to pump $2.5bn into public housing over the subsequent 5 years, which might be a 75 p.c improve from town’s present funding. For housing protections, he desires so as to add extra legal professionals within the metropolis’s housing court docket system to assist renters with points like tenant harassment and illegal eviction and supply extra housing vouchers to assist handle homelessness.
Nevertheless, 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 referred to as Benefit. The cuts from Albany, the state capital, left Metropolis Corridor no alternative however to chop the programme altogether.
One of many few new concepts from Cuomo, who has been US secretary of housing and concrete improvement up to now, is named “Zohran’s Legislation”, a jab on the more than likely subsequent mayor of New York. The brand new regulation would put in place revenue limits on those that are looking for rent-stabilised flats throughout town, which account for about half of the rental housing inventory.
Cuomo mentioned the regulation wouldn’t penalise those that see their incomes improve 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 control the broader housing market and shield residents from lease value surges that market-rate flats face in instances of housing shortage.
“I believe that’s been the playbook all alongside, type of choose a combat, steal an concept, ship much less ambitiously than New Yorkers really want or deserve,” Adin Lenchner, founding father of the New York based mostly political consultancy Carroll Avenue Campaigns advised Al Jazeera.
Transit
Cuomo’s most bold proposal is to carry New York Metropolis’s transit system underneath the management of 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 wish to improve town’s tax charge to pay for it, he would nonetheless want a buy-in from the governor, who both accepts or denies town’s proposed tax charge.
That funding dynamic is a key cause why Mamdani’s free-bus proposal has drawn scepticism. Implementing it will demand coalition-building and leverage in Albany, which critics have mentioned are greatest used for different urgent points like common childcare.
As a state lawmaker, Mamdani was capable of assist champion a free-bus pilot programme, however increasing such an initiative citywide could be much 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, however, isn’t pushing totally free transit fairly like Mamdani however has instructed he would contemplate some free routes. He additionally mentioned he would broaden entry to what’s referred to as the truthful fares programme, which provides discounted charges to low-income New Yorkers.
Cuomo’s push to assert metropolis management of the MTA additionally comes with a reasonably chequered political historical past.
Throughout his time as governor, he was steadily accused of weaponising the state’s authority over transit towards 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 competition between Albany and Metropolis Corridor.
Cuomo does have a monitor file of delivering on main transportation tasks. Below his watch, a subway line expanded, the long-delayed building 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 town’s subway system confronted widespread delays in 2017 through the building – colloquially known as the summer season of hell, through which there have been fixed gear failures and the worst on-time efficiency of any mass transit system on the earth – Cuomo mentioned it was “town’s MTA”.
Jobs
Cuomo has pitched a jobs plan that he has referred to as the $1.5bn 5-Borough Financial Transformation Capital Fund, which might fund tasks everywhere in the metropolis. He’s additionally proposing an innovation hub that might give grants to start-ups and supply them tax exemptions if they’ll show they’ll present job progress alternatives to town.
He’s additionally including a 90-day “fast-track regulatory assessment”, a promise to chop crimson tape for enterprise improvement. Each of his opponents have made comparable guarantees, however Mamdani’s is targeted on the small-business financial system.
Cuomo’s plan for workforce coaching and improvement programmes contains increasing present coaching and apprenticeship programmes for individuals who wish to pursue jobs in fields like healthcare.
Whereas he has provided to advertise extra coaching programmes that might assist with “preparation for jobs that don’t require a university diploma”, he hasn’t provided any particulars about what that might 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 charge 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 ideas 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 mentioned he would improve the brink 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 specialists about how he would pay for his proposals.
In contrast to Mamdani, Cuomo has not offered an in depth plan on how he intends to pay for his platform, and Adams has his personal present file 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 fitting 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 Training, advised Al Jazeera.
“The truth right here is that [the Cuomo campaign] has provide you with a plan to have a plan.”
