New York lawmakers are pushing for the expanded child tax credits in the next state budget despite it being outside the executive proposal of the current governor.
Senate Bill S277A, or the Working Families Tax Credit, currently in the New York Senate committee, proposes investing as much as $4 billion in the state's expanded child tax credits.
Once approved, the bill will provide households $500 per child regardless of income and up to $1,500 per child for working single parents with an annual income of under $25,000 or two-parent households making under $50,000 a year.
The disbursements will be sent to every family eligible every quarter starting in 2024.
"With the passage of this tax credit, we project that we can reduce child poverty by 20 percent. It'll be a game-changer for families all across the state," explained sponsor Sen. Andrew Gounardes Tuesday.
To lift children out of poverty
The determination to make this bill happen comes from the prior federal expanded child tax credit under the American Rescue Plan, which just expired. The lawmakers hope the state can continue where the federal program left off.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the program lifted an estimated 2.9 million children out of poverty, and 2.1 million of these 2.9 children were lifted above the poverty line. Thus, the bill is modeled after its six-month program.
Gounardes stated matter of factly that within those past six months, eligible households were able to receive an extra fund of $300 a month per kid, and the people saw how child poverty decreased to half.
The bill will expand its reach to families with kids below three years old and is said to include all residents of New York regardless of citizenship status so that help can be made in terms of groceries, utilities, and other expenses.
Read also: Expanded Child Tax: Biden's State of the Union Address Aims to Provide Economic Relief for Families
Lawmakers are optimistic the bill will be signed
However, Republicans are not giving the proposed bill a go with the argument that undocumented immigrants will be eligible if the program is pushed through.
Yet despite the criticism, Sen. Gounardes is in high spirits, confident that with New York having an annual budget amounting to $227 billion, the state government will not waste the opportunity to minimize, if not zero out child hunger and poverty, Spectrum News reported.
The senator further declared that there is no good reason why the government would not help people escape poverty.
Lawmakers giving their 100 percent support to the expanded child tax credit are also expected since Governor Kathy Hochul does not have any specific program yet in her executive budget focused on child poverty reduction, and the proposed bill can be it.
The optimism went on as the governor's office spent $386 million for stimulus checks given to low-income New Yorkers and families under the state's child and earned income tax credit program, and Hochul approved a legislation last year, which required the state to decrease the rate of child poverty by half over the following decades.
