Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo claimed credit score Monday for the creation of New York Metropolis’s common pre-Okay program, an initiative that’s broadly seen because the brainchild of his longtime political nemesis, ex-Mayor Invoice de Blasio.
Cuomo, who’s working as an unbiased candidate in November’s election for New York Metropolis mayor, staked out his place throughout an look on WNYC after being requested if he agrees de Blasio spearheaded the 2014 launch of the favored early childhood schooling program.
“No, he didn’t,” replied Cuomo, who as governor continuously clashed with de Blasio. “The state did it — I did it.”
The town’s common pre-Okay program, which supplies free full-day youngster care for each 4-year-old within the 5 boroughs, obtained off the bottom in September 2014 after de Blasio made it the principle goal of his early days as mayor.
Administered by town Division of Schooling, this system’s launch was undergirded by a hefty tranche of funding included in that yr’s state finances, that means Albany performed a key function in getting the initiative throughout the end line. Nonetheless, this system itself was proposed and designed by de Blasio’s administration, and the previous mayor has lengthy stated Albany, together with then-Gov. Cuomo, solely got here round to backing a state funding improve after relentless advocacy from his Metropolis Corridor crew.
Requested for readability on Cuomo’s radio feedback, his spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi stated the ex-governor was referring to a small-scale pre-Okay pilot program he launched on the state degree in 2013 earlier than de Blasio turned mayor. Azzopardi additionally took a shot at de Blasio for initially pushing Albany for a state-level tax improve on the rich to bankroll the common pre-Okay program.
“His point was that de Blasio wanted a tax increase for the sake of a tax increase, and Gov. Cuomo was able to build upon the pilot program he launched prior to de Blasio’s election and deliver those pre-K slots not only to the city, but also the rest of the state with existing resources,” Azzopardi stated.
De Blasio didn’t instantly return a request for remark Monday.
Mayor Invoice de Blasio and Faculties Chancellor Richard Carranza announce 3,257 households are receiving gives to free, full-day, high-quality 3-Okay for All throughout six group college districts, Might 23, 2018. (Ed Reed / Mayoral Pictures Workplace)
Some de Blasio defenders stepped in to accuse Cuomo of rewriting historical past in gentle of his radio remarks.
Metropolis Council Finance Committee Chairman Justin Brannan, who as a senior metropolis Division of Schooling official helped with the rollout of common pre-Okay in 2014, stated Cuomo’s feedback made him really feel like his “head is going to explode.”
“And I built the Verrazzano Bridge with my bare hands,” Brannan added.
“Andrew Cuomo lives in his own reality. Facts don’t matter,” Ana Maria Archila, the New York Working Households Social gathering’s co-director, piled on in a put up on X. “He makes up stories and then just expects people to fall in line.”
In a press convention held this previous April to rejoice a funding improve for the pre-Okay program, de Blasio hinted on the grueling battle his administration obtained into with Cuomo’s administration in 2014.
“I went to Albany, and I found a door that was closed quite often and a lack of support — and we had to fight and fight and fight to finally get what our children deserved,” he stated at that press convention. “You either stand for early childhood education or you don’t, and I just think everyone’s record should be remembered.”
The 2014 feud is reemerging at a time Cuomo faces a deja vu of types over insurance policies associated to taxation and childcare — albeit from a really completely different angle.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor who’s polling as the favourite to win November’s election, has proposed vastly increasing free childcare within the metropolis so that children between the ages of 6 weeks and 5 years are entitled to it. So as to fund such a drastic enlargement, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has proposed rising taxes on firms and millionaires.
Cuomo and different critics of Mamdani, together with Mayor Adams, who’s additionally working as an unbiased in November’s election, have argued Mamdani’s proposals are unrealistic, saying, specifically, that there’s no manner Gov. Hochul and state lawmakers will conform to tax hikes subsequent yr.
In his WNYC look, Cuomo — who raised taxes on millionaires in 2021 — reiterated his perception that Mamdani wouldn’t be capable of safe any tax hikes in Albany in 2026.
“That is not going to happen,” stated Cuomo, who resigned as governor in August 2021 amid sexual {and professional} misconduct accusations he denies.
With Cayla Bamberger
Initially Revealed: July 28, 2025 at 2:17 PM EDT
