Bill Thompson, left, chair of the CUNY Board of Trustees, introduces Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday at Laguardia Community College in Queens. The Governor announced a plan to provide free tuition to SUNY and CUNY students whose families make less than $125,000.

(Screengrab from announcement livestream)

QUEENS, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced a new plan to give free tuition to SUNY and CUNY students whose families make less than $125,000 a year.

Cuomo announced the so-called "Excelsior Scholarship" at LaGuardia Community College in Queens on Tuesday morning. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who made free college tuition a major component of his failed 2016 presidential run, joined Cuomo on stage.

Cuomo's plan would need legislative approval. The scholarship would be paid for with the state's existing Tuition Assistance Program, which provides about $1 billion in grants to students statewide, and other state funds, Cuomo's office said in a news release.

The news release said the plan will cost the state about $163 million when it is fully implemented.

At the announcement Tuesday, Cuomo told an enthusiastic crowd of students and Democratic officials that workers in the American economy increasingly need college degrees.

"In this economy, you need a college degree if you're going to compete," he said. "... It is incredibly hard and getting harder to get a college education today."

Cuomo said 70 percent of jobs in the state require a college education, and students often graduate with debt "so high it's like starting a race with an anchor tied to your leg." Students who were accepted to SUNY or CUNY schools statewide would be eligible for the scholarship.

About 940,000 students would qualify for the free tuition. For the 2016-17 school year, in-state tuition for SUNY students statewide is $6,470, room and board is $12,590, and student fees are $1,590.

The plan, if passed, would be phased in to include more and more families over three years. In the first year, households making up to $100,000 would qualify. That would increase to $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019, according to the news release.

Cuomo touted the scholarship as an example of New York's progressive agenda that would stand out nationwide.

"It should be a wake-up call to this nation," he told the crowd. "We need to be the best-educated workforce. ...It's time this country says to every citizen, you can be what you want to be in this country."

Sanders, who came on stage amid chants of "Bernie! Bernie!", contrasted Cuomo's plan with President-Elect Donald Trump's "hundreds of billions in tax breaks to the top 2 percent."

"We have a better idea," he said. "And that idea is to make public colleges and universities free to every student in New York State and Vermont and America."

The 2017 legislative session begins this week.