Two Queens lawmakers running against Eric Adams in this year’s Democratic mayoral primary took the chance to attack him in person over his budget cuts to New York City child care programs during a marathon Albany budget hearing on Tuesday.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens) and Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens) both pressed Adams on why his recently released preliminary budget included $300 million in cuts to programs such as universal preschool — also known as 3-K.
None of the candidates running against Adams have thus far had the chance to confront him face-to-face during the primary, as he has declined to join them at numerous candidate forums over the last couple of months. On Tuesday, Ramos and Mamdani had the opportunity to take their shots at Adams while he testified at the state capital on “Tin Cup Day” — a day when local officials from around the state come to Albany to lobby for funding their priorities.
Ramos, who is running to implement universal child care in the five boroughs, sharply questioned Adams on his reasoning for the cut and the city’s plans to close five child care centers in Brooklyn and Queens. She also argued that many families have had trouble finding suitable seats for their children in the city’s early childhood education system due to the mayor’s cuts.
In response, Adams claimed that his administration had made great strides in filling early childhood education seats and dropping the cost of child care — prompting the state senator to cut him off.
“That is not accurate, Mr. Mayor,” Ramos rebuked Adams. “As I said, we’ve had several seats from 3-K cut. There are parents worried that they can’t even find a 3-k or a universal pre-K seat that makes sense with where they live and with their daily routine.”
Adams fired back by contending that his administration “broke a record” in placing youngsters into early childhood education seats and that every family who applied for a seat on time received one.
Ramos also asked Adams how and when a five-year allocation of $154 million, gleaned from opioid settlements between the state attorney general’s office and drug manufacturers, is being spent. Adams began answering but was cut off because he ran out of speaking time.
Mamdani, who has also made universal child care one of his campaign promises, also questioned Adams about the impending closure of the five child care centers and his $112 million trim to 3-K.
“How does cutting funding for child care, closing those five early child care centers, make New York City the best place to raise a family?” Mamdani said, parroting a line from Adams’ State of the City address last month.
The mayor responded that his administration inherited 30,000 vacant childcare seats for which city taxpayers were still footing the bill. He also argued that many child care centers had enrollments below 50%.
“These five facilities are at 70% enrollment, 75% at least, and you’re proposing closing them,” Mamdani said. “How do you explain that?”
“I would, but I don’t have time,” Adams said as he once again ran out of speaking time.
The exchanges gave a first glimpse at how Adams could contend with the attacks coming from a sprawling field of rivals all gunning for his job.
Adams has avoided attending a slew of mayoral forums hosted by advocacy groups and local political clubs that began soon after last year’s election.
On the other hand, Mamdani, Ramos, and many of Adams’ other opponents have attended the forums, where they spend much of their time attacking the mayor’s record.
The mayor has cited his responsibilities as the city’s chief executive as the reason why he can’t attend while charging that the other candidates have far more time on their hands.
