ABC: Mayor Mamdani pushes childcare plan and praises new Siena Poll on raising taxes

ABC: Mayor Mamdani pushes childcare plan and praises new Siena Poll on raising taxes | March 2026: SOUTH RICHMOND, Queens (WABC) -- As Mayor Zohran Mamdani continues his push to promote 2-K programs starting in a few months, he's praising a new Siena Poll that says a majority of New Yorkers want to raise taxes on the rich.

Mayor Mamdani celebrated the Hindu holiday of Holi with little preschoolers in Queens and clouds of colored powder.

It's the kind of home-based day care the mayor will need to ramp up as the city's 2-K program debuts later this year.

"It's going to be through a wide variety of childcare providers, including places like this one, which are home-based providers as well as center-based provision," he said. "Because what we've heard from so many parents is they want the flexibility and the cultural and linguistic fluency which comes with these kinds of options."

Universal 2-K is intended to be phased in over four years, starting this fall with 2,000 children in the city's neediest neighborhoods, including families in School District 6 in Upper Manhattan, School District 10 in the northern Bronx, Districts 18 and 23 in eastern Brooklyn and School District 27 in central Queens.

The ABC feature shows Mayor Mamdani visiting Lucy’s Rainbow Daycare in Richmond Hill, a home-based provider in Queens Community House’s Queens Child Care Network (QCCN), to celebrate Holi alongside children, families, and staff.

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