Gov. Hochul pledged Thursday to help New York City establish a free child care program for 2-year-olds, a major step toward implementing one of Mayor Mamdani’s key campaign promises but without raising taxes as she gears up for re-election.
It’s part of a broader effort to put New York on a path to becoming the first American city to offer universal child care, a lofty goal that, even with Hochul’s announcement, remains many steps away.
Alongside “2-Care,” as it’s been dubbed, Hochul’s $1.7 billion investment also includes a child care voucher expansion, financial support for the city’s troubled 3-K program, and the creation of universal preschool programs elsewhere in the state. In total, nearly 100,000 children statewide are expected to benefit from the governor’s child care plan.
Hochul said the new funding will come from existing state revenue without offering specifics.
With no tax increases necessary this year to pay for it, though, the plan stands to be a big win for not only Mamdani, but herself as she wades into a gubernatorial race without the political baggage that often comes with pushing for tax hikes.
“I told him this, whatever the city was ready to deliver, I would be his partner 100% of the way,” Hochul said of her conversations with Mamdani during a news conference at the Flatbush YMCA in Brooklyn.
The mayor, meanwhile, took an early victory lap for the launch of 2-Care, which will start with a modest launch in high-need neighborhoods this fall, before expanding citywide by the 2029-30 school year.
As part of his affordability agenda, Mamdani campaigned on providing free child care to all kids from 6 weeks to 5 years old, regardless of household income — in acknowledgement of the growing coalition of New Yorkers struggling to afford raising children in the city.
“To those who think that the promises of the campaign cannot survive once confronted with the realities of government, today is your answer,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani’s campaign staffers have estimated universal child care would cost $6 billion per year in New York City alone, which is further along toward implementing universal child care than municipalities elsewhere in the state without 3-K and pre-K programs. Implementing the broader program statewide is estimated to cost $15 billion annually.
To start the rollout of 2-Care, the state allocated $73 million for 2,000 toddlers during the first year of the new program, before growing to $425 million for 12,000 toddlers during the second year. The governor didn’t immediately commit to funding the program beyond the first two years.
At the same time, she did not rule out enacting some form of tax hikes in the future in order to keep the programs going, though she in a later TV interview slammed the door on allocating the funding from jacked up personal income taxes on millionaires. That leaves the possibility of a corporate tax hike as a potential future revenue generator, a formula she hasn’t ruled out as an answer to the long-term funding question.
“We’re committed to this in the long run. I just can’t tell you what the costs are going to be at that time,” Hochul told reporters after the event.
At full implementation, researchers estimate 2-Care will cost $1.3 billion each year for tens of thousands of toddlers. The expansion will also involve a host of operational challenges, such as contracting with center- and home-based daycares and recruiting thousands of new providers to the industry.
Hochul is likely to face off in November’s gubernatorial election against Republican Bruce Blakeman, who has made clear he would use any state tax increases as fodder for political attacks against the incumbent.
With the election on the horizon, Hochul has been openly skeptical of Mamdani’s advocacy for tax hikes while also joining forces with him in calling for a drastic expansion of free child care in New York, putting her on a tricky middle ground.
Before November, Hochul must win this summer’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, in which she’s facing a challenge from her lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, who has styled himself as more aligned with Mamdani’s tax-the-rich agenda. More recently, Mamdani suggested he’s open to other ways of supporting the expansion.
Any new tax hikes would need to be cleared by both the state Legislature and the governor to become law.
In addition to 2-Care, Hochul’s plan also includes $100 million to prop up the city’s 3-K program, which despite an availability of space has struggled to keep pace with demand because of a mismatch between where families live and where open slots are located.
The bulk of the new state funding will go toward an additional $1.2 billion investment in child care subsidies for low-income families statewide who have languished on waitlists — a nearly 40% increase since this year’s enacted budget. State officials did not immediately say how much of the increase would go toward the city.
Efforts to expand access to the vouchers were complicated this week after the Trump administration froze federal funding for multiple social services programs in New York, including $1.1 billion specifically earmarked for the city’s child care system, according to the Administration for Children’s Services.
Federal officials have cited concerns about fraud and misuse on non-American citizens in New York and other Democrat-led states — charges that Hochul denies.
“This will not affect these commitments here today — we’re looking at our litigation strategies,” Hochul said. “We’ve been successful in court before. It’s a shame that everything we do has to start with a call to my lawyer and say, ‘One more lawsuit that we have to file.’ But this is the world under Donald Trump, so we’re going to fight back, and it’s not going to affect this program.”
The plan also includes the creation of a new state child care office to oversee implementation, new workforce investments, an expanded child tax credit, and other child care pilots for kids below preschool-age outside of New York City.
Thursday’s kick-off came after nearly a year of sustained advocacy for 2-Care by organized parents, who fear being pushed out of the city due to the increasingly high costs of living. Rebecca Bailin, executive director of the advocacy group New Yorkers United for Child Care, said parents have been “desperate for a solution” to the child care crunch.
“Today, we are going to start seeing that relief,” Bailin said. “We have to bring it to the finish line, but the fact that we have the mayor in New York City, the governor of the state, and the entire City Council, including the Speaker behind this, I think there’s no reason we can’t bring it home.”
