April 24, 2024
New York Can End Child Poverty Coalition Statement on FY25 NYS Budget
find the pdf of this statement here
In 2021, our leaders took the bold step of enacting New York’s Child Poverty Reduction Act, committing to the vision of a state without child poverty. In doing so, the Governor and Legislature committed to reduce New York’s unconscionably high child poverty rate by 50% over the next decade.
This year’s State Budget, our second in this ambitious timeline, should have been a moment for bold, visionary investments in policies proven to combat child poverty. Instead, the budget is a story of partial solutions in place of transformative policy.
Through the unified power of child poverty fighters and the tenacity of legislative champions, this year’s state budget includes a one-year supplemental child tax credit that will provide a boost to New York’s low- and middle-income families this fall.
We celebrate the Legislature’s recognition that New York’s families need economic investment in the form of robust, refundable tax relief. We know that tax policy is an important tool in our efforts to combat child poverty across New York State.
The Governor and Legislature know New York has a poverty problem; they approved the Governor’s proposal to provide $50 million in one-time funds to Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. Announcing the funds, the Governor said that more than half of children in these zip codes are in families living below the federal poverty line, and these cities rank among those with the highest child poverty rates nationwide.
However, this budget excludes the investments that would have a meaningful and lasting impact on New York’s unconscionably high child poverty rate. Aside from the one-year supplemental tax credit, the Budget fails to make the bold, sustained, systemic investments that are required to meet the State’s ambitious poverty reduction goal.
These are the budget choices that have a real impact on families across the state: A lack of investment in poverty-fighting measures isn’t just a missing line in the budget. It’s felt by the family stretching to afford rent and child care, it’s felt by a child going without school lunch, and it’s felt by families deciding whether New York is a place where they can afford to raise their children.
The Child Poverty Reduction Act made New York State a leader in fighting poverty—but leadership requires action. We urge the Legislature and Governor Hochul to act with urgency to set New York on-track to achieving the state’s goal of reducing child poverty by half in the next eight years, including through policy solutions like permanent, robust, refundable tax credits, universal school meals, the Housing Access Voucher Program, long-overdue increases to New York’s public assistance grants, guaranteed income supports targeted to new and expecting parents, and other solutions proven to reduce poverty.
For more information contact: Nicole Correia at ncorreia@scaany.org