Contact: Elysia Murphy, emurphy@cccnewyork.org, 917‐579‐3639
Stephanie Gendell, sgendell@cccnewyork.org, 646‐232‐6721

New York, NY – “No child should live in poverty,” said Governor Cuomo in his State of the State and Executive Budget Address today. Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC) appreciates the proposals the Governor announced today that will lift children and families out of poverty and improve their well‐being. These proposals include expanding full‐day prekindergarten, investing $25 million in an upstate antipoverty initiative, turning every failing school into a community school, increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, creating a 12‐week Paid Family Leave program in New York, and investing in children’s mental health services. The Governor also made several important proposals aimed at reducing homelessness, including the creation of 20,000 new supportive housing beds over the next 15 years and increasing the number of emergency shelter beds.

In addition, Governor Cuomo’s budget proposal once again advances raising the age of criminal responsibility in New York, so that New York will stop prosecuting all 16 and 17 year olds as adults regardless of the alleged crime. “We are quicker to find a sixteen‐year old a jail cell than a job interview, and that is just wrong,” the Governor said. CCC will be working with the Governor’s office and the Legislature so that this can be the year we finally improve public safety and raise the age!

CCC will analyze the proposed state budget in detail to identify areas where the State Fiscal Year 2016‐2017 Budget can be strengthened to ensure every New York child is healthy, housed, educated and safe.