Trumpeting his new budget proposal for New York as targeted to aid the "left out" middle class, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., said his $150 million plan to make college free for families earning under $125K "is a life-changer."
"The whole agenda this year was really structured around helping the middle class," Gov. Cuomo told "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "It is the middle class that feels left out."
The middle class is shrinking, Cuomo told host John Catsimatidis, and the governor considered his free college tuition and overall budget to be an "investment" in his state.
"This has an income tax cut for the middle class," Cuomo told the host. "It's our way of saying to the middle class: 'We hear you. We hear your tension and anger, and the state is on your side.'"
Cuomo said college today is what high school was for Americans 50 years ago: a path to success. He considers the $150 million proposal for in-state New Yorkers whose families earn less than $125K a year to go to college for free, provided they maintain a certain GPA and promise to stay and live in the state after college.
The latter caveats make the plan "more of a scholarship," Cuomo told Catsimatidis, as he addresses the need to lure business to New York with a skilled, and schooled, workforce.
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