Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to expand New York state’s child tax credit and potentially give families with children under age four up to $1,000 per youngster in the household.
Under Hochul’s proposal, which she unveiled during a Jan. 6 Midtown press conference, the tax benefit would increase from its current level of $330 per child to as much as $1,000 per child under age four and up to $500 per child from ages four through 16. The average amount of the benefit will double from $472 to $943, according to the governor’s office.
The governor said that money can be used for anything from purchasing baby formula and diapers to paying for child care. The benefit is a refundable credit that families can use to offset their taxes or receive as a direct payment.
Hochul framed the announcement as part of her recent push to address the state’s high cost of living and poverty, which she suggested will be the focus of her State of the State address next week.
“I will have the most direct impact on parents’ lives to get them out of poverty,” Hochul said of the proposal. “It will be the largest expansion of the child tax credit in our state’s history.”
The governor said an estimated 1.6 million families and 2.75 million individual children will receive money under the expanded program. Under the proposal, the tax credit would be available to all families making up to $110,000 annually.
Richard Buery Jr., CEO of the anti-poverty nonprofit Robin Hood, said tax credits are an effective tool for fighting child poverty, which was evident in the effectiveness of Congress’ expansion to the federal child tax credit in 2021. The federal expansion has since expired.
“We know that tax credits for families with children are a particularly powerful investment,” Buery Jr. said at the news conference. “When the federal child tax credit was expanded during the pandemic, we saw child poverty plunge to historic lows. … But when those federal credits expired, we saw our local poverty rate reach a 10-year high.”
The Legal Aid Society, in a statement, applauded the governor’s announcement as a “critical step” to combat child poverty.
However, the legal defense group urged the governor to include numerous other poverty-fighting measures in her state budget this year. That includes increasing the monthly cash assistance low-income New Yorkers receive from the state for “basic needs” and enacting a housing voucher program for those who are homeless or on the brink of homelessness.
“Failing to enact these measures will disproportionately impact Black and Latinx families and leave the people we serve in a state of deep poverty, perpetually scrambling to make ends meet with the bit of assistance they receive,” Legal Aid said. “We urge Governor Hochul to enact these measures and include increases for cash assistance in the State Budget to help the lowest-income families move past economic hardship, stabilize financially, and create long-term healthy, thriving communities.”
Hochul’s Monday announcement was just the latest in her recent blitz of newly unveiled efforts to combat the strain many New York residents are feeling on their pocketbooks. It follows her December proposal to provide some relief from skyrocketing inflation by mailing stimulus checks of up to $500 to 8.6 million New Yorkers.
The governor has been doubling down on affordability after many New Yorkers who voted for President-elect Donald Trump in November cited the issue as the reason they supported the Republican standard-bearer.
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