Overview

• At a joint appearance in Astoria, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she believes New York can achieve universal childcare and called Zohran Mamdani “eminently rational.”
• Hochul announced $5 million in discretionary funds for the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens to support a revamp that includes Queens’s first planetarium and 200 affordable housing units.
• The pair acknowledged that funding details will be worked out after the election, as Mamdani favors higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations and Hochul has resisted new taxes.
• Reporting places the cost of Mamdani’s universal childcare proposal at roughly $5–6 billion, highlighting the scale of negotiations needed in Albany.
• Mamdani left the event without taking questions, national Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have not endorsed him, and Andrew Cuomo publicly criticized Hochul for sharing the stage.