Cuomo rips Hochul for prioritizing tax rebates over NYC child care vouchers

Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Jun 4, 2025

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NEW YORK — In a rare direct rebuke of his successor last week, Andrew Cuomo questioned why Gov. Kathy Hochul earmarked $2 billion for inflation refund checks in this year’s state budget, but rejected a request for more state funding for a popular child care voucher program benefiting low-income New York City families.

“They shorted the city on voucher funds this year … but they had the money to give back $2 billion in tax rebate checks?” Cuomo, the front-runner in this month’s Democratic primary for New York City mayor, said in an interview with the Daily News Editorial Board last Friday.

“How can you give away $2 billion in tax rebate checks, which means you just had money to throw away, but you didn’t fund basic services in New York City?”

Cuomo’s broadside — which offers an early peek into what his relationship with the governor could look like should he be elected mayor — came after The News asked if he has been rubbed the wrong way by any of Hochul’s recent city-related policy decisions.

The inflation refund checks, which Hochul proposed as part of her executive budget this spring, will start going out to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers this fall, with joint filers who make $150,000 or less getting $400 and single filers making $75,000 or less getting $200.

The voucher program Cuomo referenced provides direct subsidies to low-income city families that they can use to cover the cost of child care for their kids, many under age 5.

The program has become vastly popular, but Hochul this spring rebuffed a request from Mayor Eric Adams to pony up more state funding for it, leading the city to shutter new enrollment due to cost concerns. To cover the fiscal shortfall, Hochul and the state Legislature ultimately came to a deal whereby the city must contribute $328 million in annual voucher payments, and then the state kicks in funds for expenditures above that.

In response to Cuomo’s comments, Hochul spokesman Avi Small said Wednesday that the governor has expanded child care voucher programs “after a decade of state neglect,” an apparent jab at Cuomo’s gubernatorial tenure.

“On the subways or in the grocery store, New Yorkers ask when their inflation relief checks are coming and thank Gov. Hochul for putting money back in their pockets,” Small added. “New Yorkers win when the mayor and governor work together: Gov. Hochul is ready to get things done, and she hopes whoever wins in November is, too.”

Cuomo’s swipe at Hochul over the child care issue is notable as he has largely refrained from criticizing her since he resigned as governor in 2021 while facing all but certain impeachment over accusations that he sexually harassed subordinates and mismanaged nursing home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Hochul critique from Cuomo, who has denied any wrongdoing, also comes after he took a thinly veiled shot at her during an interview with The New York Times this week. In that interview, Cuomo said he regretted resigning and argued he could have accomplished so much more as governor, before musing in apparent reference to Hochul’s first elected gubernatorial term: “Looking back, what has really been done in the last four years, anyway, right?”

His shot at Hochul could portend he would, as mayor, be more than willing to use the City Hall bully pulpit to go after her, even though they go way back and have largely enjoyed a cordial professional relationship. That dynamic would mark a total 180 degree change on how former Mayor Bill de Blasio often knocked Cuomo for using his gubernatorial levers to withhold funding from New York City, including for child care programs.

While blasting her over the child care issue, Cuomo also said in his sitdown with The News that he and Hochul share similar political sensibilities as moderate Democrats.

“I have a fine relationship with Hochul, I hired her,” he said. “I worked with her for years, and we have the same agenda.”

Cuomo and Hochul go way back.

In 2014, as he was seeking a second gubernatorial term, Cuomo tapped Hochul as his running mate to become lieutenant governor. They both went on to win their 2015 elections, and Hochul then served as Cuomo’s No. 2 all the way through his August 2021 resignation, at which point she succeeded him, becoming New York’s first female governor.

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(New York Daily News reporter Cayla Bamberger contributed to this story.)

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