New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is weeks away from possibly enacting the most progressive policies the largest city in the United States has ever seen.
But it won’t be easy for him.
Many of the ambitious plans will require outside approval from powers more moderate than he is. Although his promises helped catalyze his socialist movement all the way to Gracie Mansion, he will not control his destiny.
He can lobby, exert political pressure, or use other tools within his coalition’s reach to achieve his goals.
The next few months will dictate whether that’s possible, and if Mamdani will have to compromise or find a different path to please his supporters.
Here’s a breakdown of his major campaign promises and the obstacles he will face.
‘Freeze the rent’
Mamdani’s pledge to “freeze the rent” for rent-stabilized tenants in New York City is one of his most touted goals. His campaign viewed a rent freeze as a key way to tackle the affordability crisis.
But, as former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said throughout his campaign against Mamdani, the socialist has no unilateral control to freeze rent for specific tenants.
He has to go through the city’s rent guidelines board, which dictates whether rents for rent-stabilized tenants increase, remain the same, or decrease year by year. The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in New York City, believes Mamdani’s power is limited regarding a rent freeze.
“The Rent Guidelines Board must follow an established process,” Manhattan Institute fellow Ken Girardin told the Washington Examiner. “It’s not clear the mayor could lawfully engineer a particular outcome (such as a rent freeze).”
New York Mayor Eric Adams recently made it even harder for Mamdani to enact his agenda.
He recently appointed several new members to the nine-member board, bringing the total number of Adams appointees on the rent guideline board to five. Adams said the new members are “smart, seasoned experts who will serve as responsible stewards of our city’s housing stock, using facts and data to reach the right decision for both tenants and property owners.”
Mamdani’s team responded to the move by pledging to enact a four-year rent freeze no matter what.
“We are just as committed to a four-year rent freeze for the more than two million rent-stabilized tenants who call this city home and deserve relief amidst this affordability crisis. We will use all the tools at our disposal to deliver it and last-minute appointments do not change these facts,” the statement said.
It’s true that Mamdani can appoint new members when he takes office, but current members usually serve out their terms, which typically last two to four years. Only the chair can be replaced at a moment’s notice. The chair works for the board at the mayor’s direction.
The other eight members are typically only replaced once their terms expire or if they leave for any other reason. Mamdani could press certain members to resign, but it’s unclear if he will do so.
The rarity of a four-year rent freeze is unprecedented in recent history. While there have been three rent freezes on one-year leases since 2000, there has only been a consecutive-year rent freeze once, from 2015 to 2017.
The board has voted to raise rent by 3.0% and 2.75%, respectively, over the last two years. Mamdani will have to convince the board to change course to enact his agenda.
Fast and free buses
Money, like many matters on Mamdani’s agenda, is key to his fast and free transportation agenda.
Making New York City buses free is no exception. Doing so would cost around the system’s fare revenue of around $600 million a year, and likely more. The transportation authority already needed congestion pricing to raise funds for things like subway improvements and other due projects. Losing its fare revenue would create new challenges.
Girardin said the city would need the income, either way, because the Metropolitan Transit Authority has borrowed against its future revenues.
“Ending fare collections would likely present a legal difficulty,” he said.
Mamdani plans to fund the program through tax hikes on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million and a corporate tax increase that will match New York City’s rate to New Jersey’s 11.5%. But any tax hikes need the approval of the state legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY).
Getting approval from either state source will be a challenge for Mamdani. Former New York state Assembly aide James Christopher told the Washington Examiner that doing so would be even more challenging in an election year. But Mamdani has at least one advantage: His affordability agenda has become increasingly popular within the state as he has risen to prominence.
“Mamdani must sway stakeholders like he did with voters for his proposals to make New York more affordable to become a reality,” said Christopher, who is also a political consultant. “We all want a more affordable city, but getting the legislature to raise taxes during an election year will be a battle and litmus test for New York State’s Democratic Party.”
He also said raising taxes would be “akin to performing a balancing act.”
Hochul, who needs to campaign for reelection in 2026, has refused suggestions that she should raise income taxes. But she has left the door open for other increases.
“I’m not raising income taxes because I believe that we want to make sure that New York is more affordable for everybody, and I want people who are successful to keep creating the jobs and investing here,” she said in an interview with Fox 5.
“We have to look at other revenue sources to fund,” Hochul added. “Again, we’re dealing with a lot of hits from Washington.”
Mamdani has made sure to point out that he has the endorsements of both state legislative leaders in the state and Hochul. He noted that the endorsements also gave a nod to his affordability agenda.
“I’m proud to have the endorsement of Gov. Hochul, to have had the endorsements of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins of the state Senate. These are also endorsements of an agenda of affordability, and I’m confident in delivering these same policies that we ran on for more than the last year,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani also needs the support of the MTA. Its leader, Janno Lieber, has appeared open to Mamdani’s fast and free bus plan in the past, but noted that richer New Yorkers don’t necessarily need it.
“I want to make sure that people of limited income get priority in this discussion, that we’re not just giving a ton of money to people who are riding the 104 on the Upper West Side, where I grew up, the bus on Broadway,” Lieber said.
The question of making the buses “fast” is another challenge. Mamdani believes that eliminating fare collection could help achieve part of that goal, while he has also advocated building up the city’s infrastructure.
“As Mayor, he’ll permanently eliminate the fare on every city bus – and make them faster by rapidly building priority lanes, expanding bus queue jump signals, and dedicated loading zones to keep double parkers out of the way,” Mamdani’s campaign platform says.
Seventy-three percent of the buses in New York City received a D or F for on-time performance and speed as a grade in an analysis by City comptroller Brad Lander. Overcoming that could be a steep lift.
Making city buses fare-free could be a faster goal. The city has used pilot programs to test out fare-free buses from 2023 to 2024, serving around 43,000 riders. But Lieber expressed pessimism about continuing the free initiative across all bus routes.
“There’s no room for losing a couple billion dollars in bus revenue,” he said.
No-cost childcare
Free childcare for children aged six weeks to 5 years is Mamdani’s most costly promise.
His campaign estimates that the program could cost up to $6 billion a year. His tax proposals on the rich and corporate entities would raise up to $9 billion to help fund it. He would need all of those funds to enact the free childcare and his other proposals. But it again would require the approval of Hochul and the state legislature.
Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio instituted a similar program during his term, called universal pre-K, which cost around $300 million. He also suggested a tax on New York’s richest to fund it, but Cuomo, then the governor, refused to raise taxes. The pair eventually compromised, and Cuomo found the money within the state budget to institute the plan.
Finding billions in the state budget appears unlikely. Experts argue that relying on billions of dollars in new tax revenue will create volatility.
“He wants to commit to programs that will add billions of dollars a year to the budget, which has to be funded every year and will increase, inevitably, every year, with a revenue source that goes up and down, and that in a recession, and in particular in a Wall Street downturn, will go down by billions of dollars, inevitably, absolutely, positively. Will, not might. Will,” Edmund J. McMahon, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and founder of Empire Center for Public Policy, told Time magazine.
But Mamdani’s chief deputy mayor and budget guru, Dean Fuleihan, expressed optimism that the administration could get the childcare plan funded.
“It’s an imperative. We have to figure out how we’re gonna do it, but I’m very confident,” he said. “We’re going to have a positive relationship with the governor and the governor’s staff and definitely both leaders of the legislature, both conferences, and we’re going to be able to put something together.”
Mamdani said he has spoken with the governor on childcare, adding that they have a “shared desire” to make improvements centered on universal childcare. Hochul has floated making childcare free for the entire state, but acknowledged that it would drain the state’s reserves.
“He has a four-year term. I hope to have another five years at least … To do it statewide, right now it’s about $15 billion, the entire amount of my reserves,” she said.
Hochul is expected to address the childcare program in her State of the State address in January.
While funding is a huge question for the program, Mamdani believes giving parents childcare for their children will provide a boost to the city’s workforce.
“In 2022 alone, our city lost an estimated $23 billion in economic activity because parents had to leave jobs or reduce their hours to care for their children,” Mamdani said this month.
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The plan is one of Mamdani’s most ambitious. When he takes office Jan. 1, cries about the program will likely grow. He’s aware of that, even if he believes the program is necessary.
“Being right in and of itself is meaningless,” Mamdani told the New York Times. “We have to deliver.”