Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Hello, Hall of Science. It is a real pleasure to be back home in Queens, and I want to say thank you to the Hall of Science for having us here this afternoon. I want to acknowledge Lisa, our Chief Technology Officer here for the city, and we also have Kellan Calder, a parent and organizer, who has been on the front lines of fighting for child care in our city. We know that later today, Artemis II will be launching to the far side of the moon. It is the first time that astronauts will leave Earth's low orbit in 54 years. The mission will travel farther from Earth than any humans in history, 250,000 miles into deep space, [and] will re-enter [the] atmosphere at 25K per hour. It's a mission of ambition, of imagination, of expansiveness. It brings to mind the legendary phrase, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
And here today, we are announcing a slightly smaller leap for mankind in New York City, one that will, however, make a meaningful difference in parents' lives across five boroughs. Because we are taking one more step towards universal child care here in this city. We are proud today to be launching the first-ever New York City government comprehensive map of every single licensed child care provider in the place that we call home. And that includes a preschool right here at the Hall of Science.
This will be a map whose intent is ease of use [and] ease of knowledge. And we begin that with the URL where you can find it: NYC.gov/childcare. It's a website that's intuitive. It's been shaped by parent input. It will help families find child care options near them and will determine the options that best suit their needs. Too often, parents in this city have been forced to rely on information they can only find from one set of friends or another, this Facebook group or that. They have been made to feel as if they have to jump through a certain number of hoops in order to know where their options even are.
And what today starts to do is it makes it easier for parents to know where they can find those options, whether they be home-based options, center-based options, [or] school-based options; that they know there is a website where they can find all of that, as well as the health information, as well as take a survey so they can better understand what they are actually looking for given their own needs. We know that universal child care will alleviate a cost of at least $20,000 per child per year. We know that we can do that with free child care. And what we have to now ensure is that parents know exactly where to go to find those options and more. Because here in New York City, you shouldn't have to go to outer space to find affordable child care. So, with that being said, I am now going to pass it over to parent and organizer, Kellan Calder.
Kellan Calder, Parent & Organizer, New Yorkers United for Child Care: Hi, my name is Kellan Calder. I'm a parent and an organizer with New Yorkers United for Child Care. So, this website will be a game changer for parents, and I know that because parents for too long have had to scramble just to know what child care options are available to them. And as a parent myself, I know the struggle. For my eldest child, I had to go through Facebook groups, Google Spreadsheets, and more just to know where to be in my neighborhood to look for child care, and it shouldn't be that hard. So, this website changes everything.
For the first time, parents can see what's available to them in one place, in a format that's easy to understand and available in multiple languages. This matters so much because so many families don't even know that child care exists. They don't know where to go. And we hear all the time from parents; they didn't know they were qualified for 3-K. They didn't know there was a center near them. So now parents will know that they have options. And it will also boost enrollment because they'll know where to go in a way that works for them.
So, the timing couldn't be better because with 2-K launching in the fall, parents need to know what's coming, how to sign up, and this makes it possible in ways that were not there before. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for understanding that expanding child care isn't just about expanding seats; it's about ensuring every parent knows where those seats are. So, thank you.
Mayor Mamdani: I'm now going to pass it to Lisa for the demo of this website.
[Chief Technology Officer Gelobter Demonstrates Child Care Website]
Mayor Mamdani: Thank you very much for the incredible demonstration. And I think we also have our Council Member, Shanel Thomas-Henry. In the light of the map, everything can be seen. And so, with that, I'm going to pass it over to a few of our City Council Members before we start to take some questions. First, we have Council Member Gutiérrez, who's also here with a special guest.
Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez: Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. This is Hazel. I just picked her up from school. I just want to commend this administration and the wonderful work that they're doing to not only elevate what we've all been talking about for such a long time — and certainly it resonated during the campaign — that child care should be free for everyone. It should be accessible. And as a mom of two, I can't tell you how important something as simple as one place to visit to look at all the options in my neighborhood. With Hazel, I went on a search on Google, Reddit, friends, friends of friends, [and] church friends, and it was really hard. It was really hard. And I'm someone who speaks English and understands the internet. And so, imagine how that must be for other families. So, I think that this is such a great initiative, and I think [it] just reinforces that you are not messing around when it comes to this.
And New York is really going to be a leader when it comes to universal child care. So, thank you so much. And thank you for bringing me back home to my old stomping grounds of the museum. And Council Member Thomas-Henry, come on up.
Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry: Good afternoon, all, and welcome to District 21. So, when I sat down, I was actually going through the map. I don't know if you noticed, 11368 is where we are today, and there are a lot of child care providers who are also our small businesses. So, thank you, mayor, for being innovative and making it easy for parents to navigate a complex system. Like my colleague said, we're both moms of two small children.
And luckily for me, I was able to put my kids in the daycare centers that I went to. But [for] so many parents who are new to the area, so many parents who may not have gone to providers that are still open today, it's a very difficult task to find child care, responsible child care that you know and trust to take care of your most valuable possession. So again, thank you, mayor, for being innovative, thoughtful and really putting our children first. Thank you.
Question: So, despite the popularity of free child care, especially in some neighborhoods more than others, we know that New York City still has this empty seat problem. You've spoken about doing outreach [and] opening programs closer to home, but can you talk about how this tool specifically could help to address that?
Mayor Mamdani: I think we actually just heard some of this from Council Member Gutiérrez, which is the fact that many parents do not have access to all of this information. And it's hard to be a parent in this city when you don't know where to go [or] where you can find all of it. This is now a site where you can find the health inspections of all of these sites. You can find home-based providers, school-based providers [and] center-based providers, and you also have the confidence of knowing that this is a regularly updated, comprehensive set of information, because, for the first time in history, it's run by the city.
And I think that this will also make it easier for parents to understand the options in front of them. We have to do this while also making it easier for them to find child care that they can afford. Because as we've said, child care in the city is considered a good deal if you can find a $20,000 a year option. And that pushes so many New Yorkers out of the place that they love. So, we're doing this in tandem with advancing a vision for universal child care and fixing the 3-K program, where this inability of the city to meet demand was part of a longstanding issue that parents were having with the services we were providing. And so, with the 1,000 additional seats that we are bringing forward across the city, that is going to help us finally bridge that gap and make it easier to find free child care closer to home when your child is three years old.
Question: Well, two questions. The first is, I don't know if you have any information you can share about the child who was shot and killed in Williamsburg just over the last two hours. Anything you can share about that investigation? And the second question is about the budget—
Mayor Mamdani: So, let me go on the first question, then we'll go to the second one. It is a tragedy that this baby was shot and killed. And soon after this press conference, I will be joining our police commissioner to brief the media and the public on this. Our heart breaks for this family.
Question: My second question is about the budget. I know you had some strong words for the Council's budget response today. They said that they found savings that don't require potentially raising the property tax rate or raiding the city's reserves. One Council Member wrote, “I know math is hard.” People were very critical of your response. Do you want to just respond to them in what is shaping up to be a pretty rough-and-tumble budget fight leading into June and what the public can glean from your back-and-forth and fighting?
Mayor Mamdani: Speaker Menin’s preliminary budget proposal would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets, which would force the city to cut services. Double-counting previously identified savings, overestimating revenues and exaggerating debt service savings does nothing to close a deficit. The speaker's $6 billion proposal asks Albany for one thing: class-size mandate relief. It refuses to address the deeper structural imbalance between the city and the state, or to increase taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations. It effectively ensures this structural deficit will continue indefinitely. And I want to just go through a few of the specifics of the proposal.
It claims more than $1.5 billion in personnel accrual and savings from a vacancy plan. We, as the administration in the preliminary budget, took the maximum number of funded civilian positions that we could. To put forward a proposal that estimates the savings in vacancies at $1.5 billion would force the city to cut services to find that money. The proposal also claims more than $400 million in savings from general equipment, citywide supplies and materials. We're picking specific expense items that have a surplus without accounting for the fact that those are the very kinds of surpluses that are typically used to address individual deficits within departments and agencies. It does not present an honest picture of what this budget is. And finally, the proposal puts forward an allocation of more than $300 million in asset forfeiture funding. Much of that money has already been spent. This is the issue that we take with it. It is important for us to be honest and direct with New Yorkers about the fiscal deficit that we face, the $5.4 billion and the manner in which we can actually bridge it.
Question: The council says they're not proposing cuts. I'm getting inundated with dozens of Council Members saying that it's your misreading their proposal, that they're not proposing cuts. Who's correct in this situation?
Mayor Mamdani: I'm stating the facts of our city's fiscal health. In our preliminary budget, we faced a $12 billion deficit that we brought down to $7 billion. As part of bringing it down, we directed city agencies and departments to find $1.7 billion in savings. As part of that, we took the maximal number of funded civilian vacancies. The council is estimating a plan that would result in more than a billion and a half dollars. That money does not exist. If it does not exist, it would force the city to then find it elsewhere. The only way to do so is to cut services.
Question: This $1.7 billion that the chief savings officers identified so far publicly only approved, as far as we know, the public, about $200 million. It sounds like your team's having a hard time approving these cuts to $1.7 billion. Where is that total? What has been approved? I wanted to get your opinion. If the council's providing you this budget that says that you could basically just spend what you need, and if you have a vacancy, you don't have to spend money on that vacancy, nobody's getting paid, right? At what point does your plan to have Albany increase taxes is just a tax increase for the sake of a tax increase because that's what your political base wants?
Mayor Mamdani: I represent 8.5 million New Yorkers who call this city home. They want a city that has a firm financial footing, one that is balancing the budget as is legally required. We are facing a $5.4 billion fiscal deficit. That is after accounting for $1.7 billion in savings and efficiencies. To bridge that $5.4 billion gap without any proposal of significant revenue is not a realistic plan. When we are speaking about the savings that we will find from vacancies, we've put forward that we believe we can find $150 million from [the] vacancies in Fiscal Year 26, $150 million in 26, and $150 million in 27. To estimate north of $1.5 billion coming from that kind of a plan puts the city on the hook for money that will not actually appear. It will force the city to cut services elsewhere in order to find that kind of funding.
Question: The question of $1.7 billion, you've only approved $200 million of that, whereas the rest, when is that approval happening?
Mayor Mamdani: We are going to present $1.7 billion in savings at the executive budget, and we are going to do so in a manner that both finds efficiencies and savings and does not compromise city services. My concern about so much of what's being put forward today is that it would force the city to cut those kinds of services.
Question: Two questions. First, as you mentioned, the Council included a class-size mandate relief in its preliminary budget response. Can you share your reaction to that in your latest conversations with the lawmakers? Are you hopeful that you'll get more money and more time for the class-size law? Second, the teachers’ union has been pushing this Council bill to boost pay for paraprofessionals. Can you talk a little bit about where you stand on that bill? Your administration, one of your administration officials recently said that they have concerns about interfering with collective bargaining, [and] expressed opposition to the bill. So, can you weigh in on those two things?
Mayor Mamdani: So, we're encouraged by the conversations we're having with our partners at the state level, the governor [and] legislative leaders in bridging this $5.4 billion fiscal deficit. And those are conversations that have been continuing for months, and they will continue for the next few weeks. And we have put forward our vision for what a structural solution to a structural crisis looks like to ensure that we do not return here next year once again facing this kind of a generational fiscal deficit. The importance of that is that this is a deficit not driven by new spending by our administration. It is a deficit that is driven by financial mismanagement and chronic under-budgeting for long-standing expenses that the city has often chosen to push off of its public-facing budgets. And in the council's proposal, they ask Albany, in that $6 billion proposal, for one thing alone, which is more time to reduce class sizes. It refuses to acknowledge the structural imbalance between the city and the state or to increase taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations. There is no realistic proposal to bridge that scale of a fiscal deficit without significant additional revenue.
Question: So sort of building off of all of these questions, I know we're at the beginning of negotiations, but if the parties involved — you, the City Council, Governor Hochul — are sort of all in disagreement with how this should be solved, where do you see this going? And then also could you give any insight into your conversations with Governor Hochul? Does it seem like she's more willing to raise taxes on the rich? How are those going?
Mayor Mamdani: I'm encouraged by the conversations that we've been having with the Governor and the relationship that we've built. It's a relationship that we've already seen yield the kind of commitment that has made a pathway to universal child care possible in the city, as well as a $1.6 billion commitment from the state to the city that actually brought our $7 billion fiscal deficit down to $5.4 [billion]. Those conversations will continue over the next few weeks, and we are heartened by the understanding of the scale of what the city faces and the need of a structural response to a structural crisis.
Question: There's been a lot of talk about stagnating job growth in the city and what the city can do to help that. You still haven’t appointed head of the EDC [Economic Development Corporation]. Now, that is a very powerful entity. It's also been criticized by some for not being transparent enough and perhaps having too much power. I know you have talked about wanting to pair economic growth with social justice. So, I wanted to ask you, first, what are you looking for in these candidates? Is Lina Khan still doing the interviews? And what's sort of in your mind? What's an ideal project that the EDC can take on?
Mayor Mamdani: One project to me that is reflective of what New Yorkers need in this moment is the project we put forward over the course of the campaign and that we have continued to have conversations about to deliver cheaper groceries across the five boroughs. That is something that would live within EDC. We're looking for someone who both understands the scale of imagination, ambition and fluency required to deliver economic justice and economic growth hand-in-hand across the city because we know that there has not been a lack of growth in the city over the last many years. There has, however, been an inability for that growth to reach each and every New Yorker. The same city that is the wealthiest in the wealthiest country in the history of the world is one where one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty. And what we're looking to do, which is typified by the title that our Deputy Mayor Julie Su holds, Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice, is an administration that can deliver on the promise of that growth for the so many New Yorkers who call the city home.
I think beyond the EDC, I'll also just highlight the World Cup this summer is something I'm not just obsessing over as a soccer fan, but also something that I'm looking forward to as a New Yorker and the potential for the economic growth it can stimulate across the five boroughs. And our administration is looking at all the different tools we have to ensure that whomever comes here to watch the eight different World Cup matches that New Jersey and New York will be hosting also has an opportunity to travel this city and better understand the place that we all love and call home. And I know New Yorkers were paying a lot of attention to the final World Cup playoffs, where we saw Iraq qualified, Bosnia qualified, Turkey qualified. A lot of the final teams coming in for the 48, and now a lot of people are starting to plan their trips. We want them to plan a trip to this city that also shows them the beauty of the city and not just the beauty of the game.
Question: Is Lina Kahn still doing the interviews?
Mayor Mamdani: We have our team doing the interviews in our city hall.
Question: I wondered if I could get your response to last night's DSA forum where they decided to endorse AOC. I think the sort of talking point of the night was her commitment to not vote for defensive weapons, most notably the Iron Dome. I'm curious, what's your response as a DSA member who supported her endorsement?
Mayor Mamdani: I'm incredibly excited at the endorsement of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. I was proud also as a DSA member to sign my name on a letter that was encouraging that endorsement. She's someone that has long been an inspiration not just for me but for so many New Yorkers in the ability to both fight back against the kind of politics that has left so many with such little hope and fight for a future where New Yorkers see themselves not just being able to live in this city but, frankly, to dream in this city. I look forward to her re-election as a congressperson here in New York City and to continue to work with her to deliver for New Yorkers across the five boroughs.
Question: On the Iron Dome specifically, is she—
Mayor Mamdani: I support what the Congresswoman said.
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