Some members of a group tasked with reducing child poverty in New York are criticizing Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget for overlooking the most effective solutions to improve conditions for the state’s estimated 20% of children who are living in hardship.
The advisory council, created in 2021 to develop recommendations to reduce child poverty by 50% in the next decade, endorsed several of the executive’s proposals that would affect child poverty.
However, half a dozen members of the council highlighted what they felt were key omissions, such as expanded tax credits for families with young children, which could have the most immediate effect on child poverty, according to advocates.
They urged officials to include measures like the expanded child tax credit, the Housing Access Voucher program, and boosting the minimum wage, all of which would have a more direct impact on child poverty than most measures in Hochul’s budget.
Members of the task force want to see a minimum income requirement eliminated in order to claim the credit. The council is still unsure how much influence it will have in Albany and ongoing budget negotiations, but council members hope to push for a better safety net for families living in poverty.
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