Newly minted Mayor Bill de Blasio has already started implementing his sweeping progressive changes in New York City, and there’s a reason for that. The Mayor revealed during his first appearance on The Daily Show that he believes voters have given him a “strong mandate” for that change.
In a decidedly softball interview during the show on Monday evening, de Blasio and Stewart discussed the new Mayor’s policies, which included ending the controversial ‘stop and frisk’ tactic used by the police and prohibiting horse-drawn carriages from operating in the city. De Blasio also outlined his push for universal preschool and more after-school programs — to be funded by the city’s wealthy inhabitants.
All of this, according to the Mayor, was what the people wanted.
“I’m blessed to have had a very strong mandate from the people to make some real progressive change,” de Blasio told Stewart.
“And throughout the last year, I’ve talked about the tale of two cities we were living,” he added. “This was all about acknowledging the inequalities that have become very fundamental — and unfortunately growing in our city — and going at them. Whether it was the inequality of how policing was done or inequality in terms of income or inequality in terms of education.”
Stewart asked if there had been any push-back regarding the Mayor’s new agenda. De Blasio noted that residents making more than $500,000 yearly were concerned about paying for the preschool and after-school programs for middle schoolers. But he then compared their tax increase to the price of a small soy latte at Starbucks.
“If we tax those who make a half million or more, they can handle it,” he justified.
He stressed that the city was not trying to “punish success,” but was trying to increase the number of success stories for kids. Stewart agreed, calling de Blasio’s plan “reasonable” even though he will fall into the bracket of people who pay more.
“The people that have done very well in this city have done well in this city because of the opportunity this city and its infrastructure have offered us,” Stewart said. “I think it’s the least we can do to, as they say, pay it forward.”
New York City currently has a $2.5 billion budget surplus, but de Blasio has been clear that the extra funding will go toward union contracts, not paying for preschool. The Mayor is also at odds with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who wants to implement a $137 billion budget that would spend $1.5 billion on preschool expansion. Cuomo’s plan wouldn’t raise taxes, but de Blasio is insisting that New York City needs a more “reliable” funding source.
Watch the entire interview below:
