Rent freeze, free buses: Here’s what to expect from New York’s new mayor

New York: Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is New York’s mayor-elect after pulling off a stunning victory in an election in which he pledged to bring transformative change to America’s largest city.

Mamdani campaigned on confronting inequality in a city where the working and middle classes have seen their living costs, particularly rent, spiral out of control in recent years.

In his defiant victory speech, Mamdani heralded a “new age” for New York and said, “together, we will usher in a generation of change”. His win has inspired Democrats and left-leaning parties around the world as a potential template for tackling right-wing populism.

Mamdani says he will raise money to fund measures to make the city more affordable by introducing a 2 per cent city income tax on individuals earning more than $US1 million ($1.5 million) a year and increasing the top corporate tax rate from 7.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent.

Here are five big things on his to-do list.

Rent freeze

New York is at the pointy end of a wider trend of people leaving big cities for states such as Florida or North Carolina, our correspondent Michael Koziol writes. Rents in the city have soared since the pandemic, with the median rent for a one- or two-bedroom apartment now $US3600 ($5500) a month – twice the national average, according to Realtor.com figures.

New Yorkers earn more than the average American, but those figures are blown out by high-paying jobs in finance, law and technology. For the working-class, under-employed, essential workers and artists, the city is fast becoming prohibitively expensive.

Mamdani has pledged to freeze the rent on the city’s nearly 1 million rent-stabilised apartments, describing it as the most straightforward campaign promise he can deliver on quickly.

The city’s nine-member Rent Guidelines Board – appointed by the mayor – votes every year on whether to raise rents for stabilised apartments and by how much. Mamdani has said he will pressure reluctant board members to back rent freezes or remove them from the board if they don’t.

Free child care and buses

Mamdani’s most expensive pledge is free, universal childcare for all children from six weeks to five years, which some suggest could cost $US6 billion a year.

It could require a massive effort to pull off and would need support from state politicians, including New York State Governor Kathy Hochul. Finding and recruiting thousands of extra childcare workers in a city where they are paid about $US38,000 a year is yet another issue.

Mamdani also wants to make public buses “fast and free” by scrapping the current $US2.90 fare most passengers pay. This, he suggests, would cost the city $US630 million a year, but the head of the New York transport authority has told the Gothamist website the figure would be closer to $US1 billion.

Government-owned food stores

Mamdani has pledged to create a network of five city-owned grocery stores across New York’s five boroughs with the goal of challenging “out-of-control prices”. These supermarkets would pass savings on to customers by operating “without a profit motive”, Mamdani has said.

Critics argue that this could be problematic. They cite the tight profit margins for food retailing and the dominance of discount suppliers and big chains, which already offer low prices.

Similar projects have struggled in other states, and two shut down in Florida and Massachusetts recently, the Washington Post reports. 

Make corporations pay up

To help fund his plans, Mamdani wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 11.5 per cent, matching the top end of neighbouring New Jersey. The highest corporate tax rate in New York City is currently 7.25 per cent.

Mamdani also aims to add a flat 2 per cent tax for New Yorkers who earn $US1 million a year, and says this could raise $US9 billion. Questions remain as to how this could be implemented. Hochul, the governor, has also said she would not support Mamdani’s wealth-tax plan.

Meanwhile, the new mayor also wants to almost double New York’s minimum wage – currently $US16.50 an hour – to $US30 an hour by 2030.

Police and crime

Mamdani has long been attacked for criticising law enforcement and calling for the New York Police Department to be “defunded”. Critics cite a social media post from 2020 in which he wrote: “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.”

Forced to address those remarks during the campaign, Mamdani said he would not cut police funding or reduce its headcount if elected.

He has instead outlined spending $US1 billion on setting up a Department of Community Safety, which he says would hand over some current police responsibilities to civilians, including dealing with people suffering mental health crises.

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