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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 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.
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 town – has promised to construct over the subsequent decade half one million new residences, two-thirds of which shall be “reasonably priced”. The plan gives tax incentives to non-public builders to construct extra residential developments. It additionally says it would 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 beneath former Mayor Invoice de Blasio, adopted by reforms final yr to hurry up conversions beneath 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 beneath approach are anticipated to create as many as 17,400 models citywide – largely studios and one-bedroom residences – together with one of many largest office-to-housing conversions within the nation in Decrease Manhattan.
Cuomo’s plan to increase housing choices throughout town additionally faucets into publicly owned land, together with vacant heaps, to permit for growth of latest housing and mixed-use growth – 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 % enhance from town’s present funding. For housing protections, he desires 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 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 selection however to chop the programme altogether.
One of many few new concepts from Cuomo, who has been US secretary of housing and concrete growth prior to now, is known as “Zohran’s Legislation”, a jab on the more than likely subsequent mayor of New York. The brand new regulation would put in place earnings limits on those that are searching for rent-stabilised residences throughout town, which account for about half of the rental housing inventory.
Cuomo mentioned the regulation 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 earnings ranges in thoughts. It was meant to control the broader housing market and shield residents from lease worth surges that market-rate residences face in instances of housing shortage.
“I feel that’s been the playbook all alongside, form 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 based mostly political consultancy Carroll Road Campaigns instructed Al Jazeera.
Transit
Cuomo’s most bold proposal is to carry New York Metropolis’s transit system beneath the management of town itself. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which oversees subways, buses and commuter railroads, has been beneath state jurisdiction for the reason that company was created in 1968. That construction offers 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 had been to occur and Cuomo would wish to enhance town’s tax fee to pay for it, he would nonetheless want a buy-in from the governor, who both accepts or denies town’s proposed tax fee.
That funding dynamic is a key purpose why Mamdani’s free-bus proposal has drawn scepticism. Implementing it might 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 in a position to assist champion a free-bus pilot programme, however increasing such an initiative citywide could be much more difficult from the mayor’s workplace with out management of the MTA, a key weak spot within the Mamdani marketing campaign that Cuomo has tried to capitalise on.
Cuomo, alternatively, is just not pushing free of charge transit fairly like Mamdani however has urged he would think about some free routes. He additionally mentioned he would increase entry to what’s referred to as the honest fares programme, which gives 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 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 accountability for transit efficiency has lengthy been a degree of rivalry between Albany and Metropolis Corridor.
Cuomo does have a observe document of delivering on main transportation tasks. Beneath 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 tools failures and the worst on-time efficiency of any mass transit system on this planet – 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 all around the metropolis. He’s additionally proposing an innovation hub that will give grants to start-ups and supply them tax exemptions if they’ll show they’ll present job development alternatives to town.
He’s additionally including a 90-day “fast-track regulatory assessment”, a promise to chop purple tape for enterprise growth. Each of his opponents have made related guarantees, however Mamdani’s is concentrated on the small-business financial system.
Cuomo’s plan for workforce coaching and growth programmes contains increasing present coaching and apprenticeship programmes for individuals who wish to pursue jobs in fields like healthcare.
Whereas he has supplied to advertise extra coaching programmes that will assist with “preparation for jobs that don’t require a school diploma”, he hasn’t supplied any particulars about what that will be. Representatives for Cuomo didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s request for extra particulars.
Taxes
In 2021, Cuomo was behind one of many greatest tax will increase on the ultrawealthy in New York state’s historical past. His administration raised the company tax fee by 0.75 %. He additionally raised the taxes for these making $1m to $2m to 9.65 % from 8.82 % and inbuilt two new tax brackets: For these making $5m to $25m, it was 10.3 %, and 10.9 % for these making greater than $25m yearly.
His new plan as mayor contains no tax on suggestions for restaurant employees and eliminating earnings tax for New Yorkers making at or lower than 200 % 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 enhance the edge for the mansion tax, a further 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 offered an in depth plan on how he intends to pay for his platform, and Adams has his personal present document to level to, together with elevated tax collections and decreased spending.
“They [Mamdani’s campaign] at all times get requested how are you going to pay for it [Mamdani’s policy proposals]. Cuomo and folks to the correct 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, instructed Al Jazeera.
“The fact right here is that [the Cuomo campaign] has give you a plan to have a plan.”
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