On the Issues

It’s no secret: working families in New York are struggling to make ends meet. 

Parents and their kids are being pushed out of New York thanks to spiraling child care and housing costs. Poverty is climbing across the state, and children are bearing the brunt. Nearly one in four city residents are struggling to afford basic necessities like housing and food.

Andrew has worked to make New York more affordable for families. This year, he won:

• The lowest middle-class tax rate in over 70 years, saving New Yorkers millions of dollars.

• $350 million for a supplemental Empire State Child Credit to provide additional support to working families.

• Over $1.8 billion for the New York State Child Care Block Grant, which provides child care subsidies for 119,000 eligible children, as well as millions in funding for Child Advocacy Centers that support victims of child abuse and neglect.

• $300 million for Summer EBT to address food insecurity among low-income students, and $58 million for the Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program.
  

But Andrew knows we need to be even bolder to support New York families. That’s why he’s proposing the Working Families Tax Credit.

When the federal government temporarily expanded the federal Child Tax Credit during the pandemic, they lifted millions of families out of poverty and drove child poverty to record lows. But Washington dropped the ball and let the expansion expire, with dire results.

Andrew’s Working Families Tax Credit would fill in the gap. Here’s how it works:

• The credit streamlines and fills gaps in current state tax credits by including 17-year-olds and families regardless of citizenship status. It also allows the lowest-income families to receive the biggest credit.

• The credit raises the maximum credit to $1,600 per child, eliminates the cap on the number of eligible kids and pins the credit to inflation.

• The credit is paid out quarterly, providing families with four regular payments per year instead of just one annual sum.

Andrew’s Working Families Tax Credit would be “the boldest state proposal” in nearly two decades and “reduce complexity for families,” according to the Niskanen Center. And the impacts would be far-reaching: when families’ basic needs are met, their educational outcomes and employment opportunities grow, benefiting not only them but their communities, too.