Tom Zmich, who previously ran for Congress against Congresswoman Grace Meng, is now looking to unseat Borough President Donovan Richards.
One of Zmich’s priorities is bring rail service back to a 3.5-mile stretch of abandoned railway in Central Queens.
“Even if it’s 22,000 passengers a day, it will still be 22,000 taxpayers who use the line to go to work,” Zmich said.
Another one of Zmich’s priorities is to implement a tourist voucher for people visiting Queens to help small businesses.
“I went to Ireland back in 2015, they had something like a tourist pass for $25,” explained Zmich. “And what they gave you was a 40 percent discount on the attractions in Ireland. We could do something similar to that or even better for a lot of things like museums, horseback riding, golf, or the beach.”
Zmich is also looking to improve education with a private school voucher giving parents more option to public school.
“Right now in New York City, according to the statistics, we spend $27,000 per student for regular school, and over $30,000 for handicapped students or special needs,” explained Zmich.
“Right now, private schooling for first through eighth grade at most regular schools is about $7,000 to $8,000 and they get a private education,” added Zmich. “We give a $15,000 voucher right away to anybody who’s going to go to school.”
Zmich wants to get back to the Queens he knows and loves.
“This is my Queens that I grew up in, I want to bring it back where everybody feels proud enough to be here and not have to be whining and complaining about everything and looking for a handout from the government every five seconds,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”