00:00New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani has promised big things for the Big Apple, but can he follow through?
00:08If you had free buses, you'd be able to board and disembark from any one of the doors on that bus.
00:14Governor Hochul and I share a commitment to universal child care.
00:17Along with free buses and child care, Mamdani has promised to raise the minimum wage, open government grocery stores, and more.
00:24But 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.
00:33In reality, if he had wanted to accomplish some of these big-picture items, he would have had to run for governor.
00:40What he wants to do for New York City mostly requires both the approval of the governor and the state legislature.
00:48Mamdani'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.
00:58But any changes to the tax rates would require approval from state lawmakers and Governor Kathy Hochul.
01:04He wants the state legislature and the governor to enact $9 billion worth of annual taxes.
01:12Without those tax hikes, he can't implement his program, his universal child care, his Department of Community Safety, a couple other big-ticket free buses.
01:24He can't do those things without that state revenue.
01:28So the governor and the legislature would have to consider, is this a risk that we want to take with the state's tax base?
01:39Mamdani does have some support from the state legislature, but Governor Hochul has signaled she's not inclined to raise taxes.
01:46Hochul has also pumped the brakes on the free bus plan.
01:50City buses are actually controlled by a state agency.
01:53It would be the governor who would have to give the green light to her MTA chairperson to say,
01:59OK, we can do free buses, and also the state would have to come up with this $700, $800 million in funding from fare revenue that would be lost.
02:10And that's not the only issue on the free bus plan.
02:13Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, would they also want their own free bus system?
02:18So there's more to think about than just, OK, the New York City buses can be free.
02:23You're kind of opening the door to an entirely free transit system, because the same arguments that poor people take the bus,
02:31that also holds for the rest of the state's transit systems.
02:35Mamdani also has to deal with the New York Financial Control Board.
02:38That board started back in 1975, when the city nearly went bankrupt.
02:43We just increased spending much faster than the tax revenues came in.
02:48By the 1970s, we were starting to have a cratering tax base, as we saw flight to the suburbs,
02:55major corporations leaving New York City for the suburbs and for southern states.
03:01So we just ran out of money.
03:03That board still exists, but mostly just to make sure the city presents a balanced budget every year.
03:09So will Mamdani really be able to keep his big promises?
03:12Realistic view is that he purposely asked for a lot more than he knew that he was going to get.
03:20So just go out and ask for a wild $9 billion figure, and then he would say that he's happy with getting half of that,
03:28you know, a $4 or $5 billion tax increase.
03:32While many have painted Mamdani as a socialist,
03:35Jalina said the one idea Mamdani has not floated is the one thing that most resembles true socialism.
03:42He could have run on raising the property tax.
03:45The property tax in New York City is the only tax that the city can raise by itself.
03:51Mamdani would only need permission of the city council, not state legislature or the governor.
03:57And that would be closer to a traditional view of socialism, where everybody pays more, but everybody gets more benefits.
04:07But that was not the platform that he ran on.
04:10He ran explicitly on redistribution from wealthier earners and from businesses.
04:16And for that, he does need the state.
04:18Mamdani will take office on January 1st.
04:22For Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig DeGrelli.
04:23For more unbiased updates, download the Straight Arrow News app or go to san.com.
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