New York announces major expansion of free 2-K program

Also breaking at noon, a major expansion of New York City's 2K program. The mayor and the governor just announcing thousands of new early childhood education seats are coming to the city next fall. Fox 5's Morgan Mackay, live in the Belmont section of the Bronx, where the mayor spoke about this just a short time ago. Hey, Morgan. Hey, Antoine. With just a few weeks to go before the election, Governor Kathy Hochul stood with Mayor Eric Adams today to tout the expansion of free child care for two-year-olds. But there's growing pressure on Hochul to pass a tax hike next year to help pay for this program long term. Now, Hochul delivered Mayor Adams an early win earlier this year when she announced the state would pay for the first two years of free child care for some two-year-olds in the city. The program launched this fall and provided 2,000 free child care seats for two-year-olds in four of the five boroughs. Staten Island is currently the only borough without open 2K seats, but starting next year under this new expansion, every school district on Staten Island and the Bronx will have open free 2K seats. The city and state's adding 10,000 additional seats, bringing the total to 12,000 available 2K seats next year. Now, Governor Hochul is committed to having the state pay for these first two years, but hasn't said how the program will be funded after that. Mayor Adams said he wants to hike taxes on millionaires and corporations. And last week, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said she would also support a tax hike if it helped pay for child care. Hochul today not ruling out a tax increase, but points to how the program is currently funded. We have been able to successfully fund this year in addition to next year's commitment within our existing resources. It's called good fiscal management. and I want to make sure that this program endures and we'll make sure we do it, whatever it takes, but I am committed to this program. And we'll have more on this program in our later shows. Reporting live, I'm Morgan McKay. Antoine, back to you. All right, Morgan, we'll take it.