New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Comptroller Mark Levine issued a dire warning last week: the previous mayor’s financial mismanagement has left New York City with a $2 billion budget gap this year and a $10 billion gap next year. At the exact same time, New York’s richest residents are about to receive a $12 billion federal tax cut as part of the largest income transfer from the working class to the rich in United States history, courtesy of Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Even before this transfer, New York’s richest 1 percent were taking home over 45 percent of all income after state taxes.
New Yorkers cannot afford government inaction on revenue. To protect the future of our city and our state, New York must tax the rich.
As the cochairs of New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), we are leaders in the growing movement to tax the rich, fund childcare, and reverse the Trump administration’s cruel cuts to health care, food assistance, and housing. In December, NYC-DSA launched the Tax the Rich to Fund Child Care campaign. New Yorkers sent thousands of letters to Governor Kathy Hochul and their state legislators during the first weekend of canvasses alone.
Following our movement’s pressure, the governor soon committed state funds to increasing childcare availability and decreasing families’ costs. This commitment is a significant and welcome first step. But without revenue raisers, Governor Hochul’s plan falls well short of a truly universal and free childcare program. The state will expand care for two-year-olds in New York City by 30,000 spots over the next three years, far fewer than the 55,000 spots needed. It will also expand pre-kindergarten across New York State over four years and launch a small number of pilot programs to provide care for children under four years old.
But the governor has provided no plan for how to fund 2-Care beyond the next two years, creating a potential program cliff. The proposal…
Auteur: Grace Mausser
