Tom Zmich, BP Candidate

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.”