Latest news with #affordabilityCrisis
New York Times
9 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
5 Things to Know About Zohran Mamdani
When he first declared his candidacy for mayor last fall, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was a state legislator with a thin résumé who was unknown to most New Yorkers. Months later, he appears poised to become the Democratic Party's nominee for mayor, having bested a far better known and more experienced cast of candidates who had deep relationships with voters across New York City. Mr. Mamdani's campaign focused intensely on the plight of working-class New Yorkers who were struggling with New York City's affordability crisis, most notably the skyrocketing costs of housing and child care. Here is a look at his record and some important things to know about New York City's Democratic mayoral nominee: A Fresh Voice, a Short Track Record Mr. Mamdani beat a four-term incumbent in a close State Assembly primary in 2020. He joined a small group of lawmakers in Albany who were part of the Democratic Socialists of America's New York chapter. His agenda in Albany mirrored his campaign priorities, but of the 20-odd bills Mr. Mamdani has introduced in more than four years in Albany, just three relatively minor items have become law. During the campaign, he talked extensively about a program to begin making city buses free that he had helped start. The pilot program lasted one year and was not renewed. Still, colleagues said his ideas had helped to move the ideological center of the Assembly to the left. In Albany, he was one of the Legislature's youngest members. If elected mayor, he would be, at 34, the city's youngest leader since 1917, when John Purroy Mitchel, a reformer known as the 'Boy Mayor,' was elected and served one term. Mr. Mamdani's youth and fresh vision attracted a broad swath of progressive voters, even as his opponents focused on his relative lack of experience. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Fox News
05-06-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Former Republican congressman-turned-Democrat launches bid for governor in push to flip red-state Florida
Democrats in Florida face an uphill climb as they work to win the governor's office in next year's elections. It's been more than three decades since a Democrat won a gubernatorial election in the Sunshine State. You have to go all the way back to Democrat Gov. Lawton Chiles' 1994 re-election. But former Rep. David Jolly, when asked how the Democrats could end their losing streak, told Fox News Digital, "It's been even longer since we had an affordability crisis like we're experiencing right now. That's how." Jolly, who, as a Republican a decade ago, won election and re-election to Congress, on Thursday announced his Democrat candidacy for governor in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis. "We have an affordability crisis in Florida driven by an insurance crisis that continues to worsen in the face of complete neglect by Tallahassee. We have abandoned public education, and we've allowed corruption to run rampant. It's time for a change," Jolly said in a statement. And in his Fox News interview, Jolly argued that the state's affordability crisis has "largely been caused by Republican neglect that I don't believe Republicans will address and that our campaign will." Jolly, who left the Republican Party seven years ago and became an independent and a cable news political analyst on MSNBC, pointed to the GOP's voter registration advantage in Florida. "Let's be honest about the math," he said. "There aren't enough Democratic votes in Florida for a Democratic governor to just win with their own party. We have to build a coalition that includes independents and commonsense Republicans. But here's the good news, it's already there." Jolly, pointing to the recent town halls he's been holding ahead of his campaign launch, said, "Republicans are turning out. Independents are coming out. There's a perfect storm for legacy Republicans right now. We have an affordability crisis in Florida that's hitting every family, every voter, every walk of life, and it doesn't care what your partisan affiliation is, Republican, Democrat or independent." "This is a race much like you've seen with Andy Beshear in Kentucky and Steve Bullock in Montana, a coalition for change can win next November. But that coalition is going to have to be led by today's Democratic Party," he added. The mentions of GOP-dominated Kentucky's current Democrat governor and red-state Montana's former Democrat governor were intentional. Jolly recently hired as an adviser Democrat political strategist Eric Hyers, who helped steer Beshear and Bullock's successful campaigns. Four years ago, former governor and former Rep. Charlie Crist, another Republican-turned-Democrat, was trounced by DeSantis as the conservative governor cruised to re-election by 19 points. Jolly highlighted that Crist (who defeated Jolly as the then-congressman ran for re-election in 2016) quickly transitioned from Republican to Democrat. "It was transactional for running for office. He would always say, 'I didn't leave the party. The party left me,'" Jolly noted. "David Jolley left the party," he said. "I've grown. I've changed." "Over the last 10 years, my values haven't changed," Jolly said. "This is very important. When I was a Republican in Congress, I supported marriage equality, gun control, climate change, campaign finance reform. Republicans didn't want me. Democrats didn't need me, but those values were already there then. I am a person of deep faith. I grew up a preacher's kid in a Christian church. I belong to a Christian church today." But Florida Republicans predict Jolly will become the latest in a line of defeated Democrat gubernatorial candidates. "It's good to know Never Trumper and failed MSNBC analyst has found his true home in the irrelevant @FlaDems," Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power said after Jolly joined the Democratic Party. "I welcome him to run for Governor, the nearly 40% of the electorate that voted for @CharlieCrist deserve an equally bad choice this cycle." Making the Democrats' climb to win back the governor's office next year even steeper is last month's announcement by state Sen. Jason Pizzo, the former state Senate Democrat leader, to run for governor as an independent. Weeks earlier, Pizzo argued the Florida Democratic Party was "dead." "I have enormous respect for Jason Pizzo. He followed his political conviction, just as I did. I disagree with his decision," Jolly said. But Jolly also said, "Jason was right when he said you've got millions of disaffected independent voters" and added that "my job as the Democratic candidate, and perhaps the Democratic nominee, is to build a coalition that says [to] those independent voters, 'We want you in this coalition.'" In the race for the Republican gubernatorial primary, Rep. Byron Donalds appears to be on an early glide path to the nomination as speculation of a possible bid by first lady Casey DeSantis cools. Donalds enjoys the support and endorsement of Florida's most famous resident: President Donald Trump. "This race is not about Donald Trump. You'll never hear me talk about Donald Trump. It's about the affordability crisis and how Republicans in Tallahassee have created it," Jolly said. But Jolly argued that "Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are the scene-setters for an earthquake-of-a-change election environment in the state of Florida, because if voters in Florida are demanding change, I'm not sure they could look at Trump's endorsed candidate in Byron Donalds and see change. If it's Casey DeSantis, you're not seeing change. You're seeing the third term of Ron DeSantis."
Mail & Guardian
21-05-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
Joburg and Durban residents fume over municipal hikes
(eThekwini Municipality) Durban and Johannesburg residents and property owners are fuming over proposed property rate, electricity, water and sanitation tariff hikes, saying they face an affordability crisis and that their cities' crumbling services delivery does not warrant the increases for the 2025-26 financial year. Both the The ERPM is outraged by 'We hereby register a formal and unequivocal objection to the proposed tariff increases outlined by the eThekwini municipality. In the context of a deepening affordability crisis, increasing resident debt, and ongoing failures in service delivery, ERPM finds these proposed increases both indefensible and unsustainable,' the movement's chairperson, Asad Gaffar, wrote in its objection letter. He described ratepayers' grievances as encompassing an affordability crisis that leaves residents unable to meet existing service costs, escalating debt levels that risk locking households into prolonged financial hardship, service delivery failures marked by 'contractor irregularities' and 'questionable municipal spending' that eroded public trust. 'The municipality has not demonstrated how prior tariff revenues have been applied to deliver on the Integrated Development Plan (IDP). In the absence of financial transparency, any request for increased revenue is unacceptable,' Gaffar wrote. Ratepayers also called for tighter oversight of contractors, and a formal role for ratepayers in approving municipal projects. 'We will not accept continued financial burdens on residents without accountability, transparency, and meaningful reform,' Gaffar wrote. This week, he told the Mail & Guardian that the movement was also demanding a moratorium on tariff hikes, because many pensioners,and people who had lost their jobs were already in a collective R30 billion arrears. 'It's one of the reasons the city is struggling to collect revenue. Most individuals are in debt because they have no other choice. They cannot pay for services. Anyone who's in debt makes a psychological choice. When that amount is affordable or unreasonable, they just simply ignore it and wait for the consequence,' Gaffar said. 'That's exactly what's happening with people at the moment, they have a choice between buying food or paying for services and, in most instances, they can't even afford to pay for services.' He said the city needed to reexamine how it determines who qualifies as indigent in terms of tariff exemptions because many unemployed or retired people live in homes over a certain value and are excluded from these tax breaks. 'The municipality is then saying 'if you can't afford to pay for services then sell that house and move somewhere else'. The question is: move out and go somewhere else, where? The fact that the employees of the city themselves cannot afford to pay for services, tells you there's a problem.' The city's budget consultation process was also inadequate, Gaffar said. 'The municipality doesn't understand what public participation means. They simply come there, tell you what they're doing. They tell you what the budget figures are and, more often than not, the individuals at the meeting start to complain about services. 'What the municipality does is have these meetings more often than not in areas where there are no working citizens. They use that to say, 'of the 100,000 people who attended these budget meetings, 5% will complain'.' eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba announced a 50% cut in arrears debt owed to the city subject to conditions including that debtors settle the balance in full to obtain the discount. eThekwini spokesperson Gugu Sisilana declined to comment on the movement's objection. 'We are not going to single out any ratepayer association by discussing their objections as the city conducted budget /IDP roadshows across the length and breadth of the city and is considering all objections/comments received,' she said, adding that the outcome would be communicated during a full council meeting. In Johannesburg, the city's draft budget for 2025-26 proposed increases of 4.6% for property rates, 12.41% for electricity, 13.9% for water and sanitation and 6.6% for refuse removal. The The association raised concern about policy changes, particularly the restriction of the R300 000 residential threshold rebate to a single property per owner. 'This change will disproportionately affect affordable housing providers,' the association's general manager, Angela Rivers, wrote in the objection letter, noting that 'the financial benefit of the rebate does not accrue to the property owner as profit'. 'Instead, it subsidises operational costs and allows landlords to maintain below-market rentals for low-income residents,' she said. Without the rebate, tenants faced higher rents, risking 'displacement and affordability collapse in formal rental housing'. Equally contentious was the proposed 'non-maintenance' penalty tariff, which the association said was 'flawed and likely unconstitutional'. The tariff aims to charge properties deemed 'not maintained' rates of six times the standard residential rate. The association has warned that the proposal risks accelerating the decline of the inner city, 'with knock-on impacts for crime, unemployment, and spatial inequality'. 'This violates the principles of administrative justice,' Rivers said, warning that it could punish owners of hijacked or distressed buildings, chilling investment in urban regeneration. She added that Johannesburg faced a housing backlog of more than 459 000 units and the city could not afford to alienate the very sector helping to address this shortfall. The association objected to the 12.41% increase in electricity tariffs and the introduction of a R130 or R200 per-unit network capacity charge for electricity reseller buildings. 'The imposition of this charge undermines the policy rationale for the reseller model,' it argued, noting that it amounts to 'double-recovery' because property owners already cover infrastructure costs. Data from the association's member buildings shows tenants consume an average of 98-159 kWh a month, Rivers added, well within the low-usage threshold, making the fixed charges 'regressive' and 'disproportionately burdensome' for low-income households. The association is working on an affordable housing tariff for presentation to the She said there was little transparency on how public input is processed or incorporated into final decisions, 'which makes it difficult to assess the true impact of engagement' with the city. 'Until the final tariffs and IDP are published, we can't say whether our comments were meaningfully considered. Public consultation is only sufficient if it leads to real results — and for that, we'll have to wait and see,' Rivers added. City of Johannesburg spokesperson Nkosana Lekotjolo did not respond to the M&G's request for comment on these objections but pointed to budget documents highlighting the tariff increases, saying the budget speech would be presented next week. Comparing these costs across three major metros, eThekwini has imposed the highest property rates increase at 12.9%, nearly double Johannesburg's 7.5% and above Cape Town's 7.9%. For electricity, Durban leads with a 12.72% hike, followed by Johannesburg at 12.41% and Cape Town at 2%, markedly lower than Cape Town has also proposed several new policies that would see tariffs, such as water and sanitation, rising steeply for mid- to higher-end valued properties as it seeks to link charges to property valuations. These include water and sanitation tariff increases of 7.3% and 11.1% respectively, with additional fixed charges now based on property value rather than connection size. For example, a property valued at R5 million may face a fixed water charge of R548.87 a month plus usage costs. A new city-wide cleaning tariff has also been proposed based on property value, replacing its previous property rates funding model.
