In response to the release of the One-House Budget Resolutions, Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC) Executive Director Jennifer March issued the following statement:

Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York applauds Senate and Assembly members for advancing One-House Budget Resolutions that build on the Governor’s FY2023 Executive Budget in important and critical ways.

The pandemic has resulted in loss of life; loss of employment and income; increased food and housing insecurity; disrupted access to developmental supports, child care, and education; and skyrocketing behavioral health needs, greater social isolation, and increased crime. We commend New York  legislators for passing One-House Budget Resolutions that focus squarely on advancing a wide range of proposals that address pandemic impacts and invest in children, families, and communities. These proposals include lifting incomes through the New York City and State Earned Income Tax Credit, stabilizing housing by extending emergency rent assistance programming and establishing a permanent statewide rent subsidy, addressing health disparities by expanding coverage to undocumented New Yorkers, expanding access to postpartum care, and increasing investments in behavioral health care in communities and schools.

We also applaud New York legislators for proposing a pathway to universal child care for the first time in our state’s history. After many years of cutbacks and underfunding, child welfare prevention resources are restored in the One-House Budget Resolutions. New York City will be to access Raise the Age resources, and significant investments in youth and community rooted programming to promote community safety are proposed. Together, the areas of shared priorities articulated by the Senate and Assembly set the stage for budget negotiations with the Governor and ultimate budget adoption.

Importantly, while we support many of the proposals in the One-House Budget Resolutions, we urge the Senate, Assembly, and Governor to address several issues where there is not consensus between the Senate, Assembly, and Executive Budget proposals. These include increasing reimbursement rates for Early Intervention services, protecting access to new Child and Family Treatment services, expanding access to family and teen peer supports, ensuring the Empire State Child Credit is reformed to reach households with very young children and provides the greatest benefits to the poorest households, funding Kinship Guardianship outside of the foster care block grant, and advancing the statewide provision of free school meals. We look forward to working with our elected leaders as they finalize this historic budget and are hopeful that the adopted budget will place New York on the path to a more equitable recovery.
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About CCC
Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC) educates and mobilizes New Yorkers to make the city a better place for children. CCC’s advocacy combines public policy research and data analysis with citizen action. CCC casts light on the issues, educates the public, engages allies and identifies and promotes practical solutions to ensure that every New York City child is healthy, housed, educated and safe. For more information about CCC, visit
www.cccnewyork.org