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A service for political professionals · Wednesday, January 8, 2025 · 775,139,684 Articles · 3+ Million Readers

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Money in Your Pockets: Governor Hochul Proposes Sweeping Expansion of the Child Tax Credit to Deliver Up to $1,000 Per Child

As her second proposal for the 2025 State of the State, Governor Kathy Hochul today proposed a historic expansion of New York’s child tax credit for more than 2.75 million children. Governor Hochul’s plan would give 1.6 million New York families an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 per child under age four and up to $500 per child from four through sixteen. This proposal represents the single largest boost to New York’s child tax credit in its history, and a significant increase above the value of the existing credit, which currently provides only up to $330 per child.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page has photos of the event.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning. This is the second event I've done in a row where there's a basketball net above my shoulder. You may not know, but I've taken up basketball. Don't laugh. That wasn't meant to be funny. So I'm trying to get more steps, a little more exercise. I've got this whoop that tells me how I'm doing. Okay, I need more sleep. I get it, but I've started dribbling basketballs whenever I see a net. So I'm a little tempted. If I see a ball, you never know. It's a little high. I'm hoping I go through a growth spurt anytime in my life now, but you never know, you never know.

But it's great to be back here. This is a place of new beginnings, a place where it's just overwhelming with love, and the care you give our kids to give them a better shot in life later on. I'm so grateful to everyone here at the Y and I just love what you do here. I've been involved in the Y, where I come from – Western New York, for my entire career. And I'm really supportive of everything you do, but let's not forget the reason we're here today.

Tonight, all across New York, at kitchen tables, as it starts getting dark so early, and people coming home from work, they'll be sitting there eating dinner, and then maybe some of them will be pulling out that stack of bills, and thinking about how they're going to make it all work. How is it all going to work?

And you look at the grocery bills. Diapers. Gosh, I couldn't wait for kids to be out of diapers. They're so expensive – and formula costs $200 a month. Groceries are up 23 percent from five years ago. We're told inflation is going down, but it's still at that base level that's higher than it's ever been in years.

And if you need more space for your growing family. Oh my gosh, my parents started out in a tiny trailer park with one little space for a bed and my brother was born there. I think they used to let him sleep in the drawers. Then I came along, a few months later, if you’re Irish, you know, about nine months later. And there was no place for me, so they found a little tiny flat in the shadow of the Bethlehem Steel Plant where my dad worked. I know about needing space from my own family's experience, my own, what I see my kids going through. How do you possibly do it? And these conversations are going on all over the State of New York.

But we're here today to do something about it. And I want to thank the leaders who are with me here today. Sharon Greenberger, as I mentioned, just an extraordinary leader of an organization that is changing the lives of countless New Yorkers. Let's give her another round of applause.

Richard Buery. This man is legendary, and I want to thank him not just for the work that he's done with Robin Hood, but also with our Child Poverty Task Force, where we said, “Let's bring in the people who live this every day, who understand at the base level what we need to do to change the outcomes and change the statistics in the State of New York, which are too high. Our poverty rates are too high.”

And not just here in New York City, my friends. It's going on all over New York State – Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, some of the worst in the nation. We've got a lot of families that need our help. And so, Richard, I want to thank you for always stepping up to be there when we need you. So, thank you.

Tasia Brown. You're going to be hearing from Tasia Brown. I want to thank her for sharing her personal story. I'm also joined by extraordinary partners in government. Commissioner Guinn, the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, Barbara. DaMia, Commissioner DaMia Harris-Madden is joining us as well, the Office of Children and Family Services, Harris-Madden. Got a handful of my colleagues in government.

Gale Brewer, is there any event you've ever missed in your life? She's everywhere. I know, Gale, my husband used to say, “The only difference between me and God, is God is everywhere? You're everywhere but home.” I think your husband could say that too. So, Gale Brewer, a great friend for many, many years. And our councilmembers here, our Councilmember Carlina Rivera, Councilmember Susan Zhuang. I want to thank them for their leadership in our city council as well. Thank you both. Former member of Congress, Carolyn Maloney, my former roommate in Washington. Let's give her a huge round of applause.

Alright, so let's establish one thing. New York State parents are stressed out. Back in August, the Surgeon General of the United States of America warned that parenthood itself is becoming a public health crisis. And like right up there with cigarettes and too much alcohol and other challenges. A public health crisis to become a parent because the stress loads are so high. Raising a family is harder than it's ever been before. Everything is up. And with so many parents raising young kids, we want more kids. We want more kids, it's wonderful to see kids, but their own parents are aging. I went through this, the sandwich generation.

Your kids need help, have to take care of them. Mom and dad need help, my own grandparents needed help, and sometimes they have their own health issues, and you're just pulled in so many directions, you're just like, “When will this stop?” And the conversation is not just about paying the bills – can we afford to stay here anymore? And we know why people are here. It's an incredibly diverse, fascinating place to live. But those who are forced to leave, that is tragic. That is tragic.

That's why we're building more housing after decades of people saying that they didn't care enough to make the tough decisions. We're building more housing so people can have a place to stay to drive down costs, but that's going to take some time. Everyday costs are what people are dealing with right now. And you know why babies’ clothes are zero to three months, three months to six months? Because they outgrow them every three months, right?

They're not just labeling. I mean, I was just buying some new clothes for my granddaughter. Oh my God, is this going to fit her in a couple of months? You grow outside your shoes. Then you have got to worry about, did you get a flat tire? No more potholes, by the way. Well, the ones outside of certain jurisdictions.

Your basement floods. I'm from Buffalo — a big storm a couple years ago, my entire condo flooded and had to be stripped down to the studs for six months. Now, luckily I had insurance, but I could also cover a lot of those out-of-pocket costs as well. I am one of the blessed ones. But unexpected – pipes freeze, flood, you move out — what do you do? And one unexpected huge expense can just push you over the edge. So, tough choices – we shouldn't have to make them, not here in the great State of New York.

So I know a little bit about it myself, I say this all the time: first Mom Governor, first mom grandmother. But I remember what it was like going to those big discount stores and loading up the cart: How many diapers can I fit in here? How many cases of formula? How many little snacks and juice boxes — which, it turned out, weren't that good for them anyhow. We bought all that stuff because the more you buy, you have to hide it somewhere.

You wouldn't believe where I used to stash the big paper towels. And if you ran out of diapers and formula, my God, you're weren’t going to be able to afford it. So, what I wanted to do? I said, “More money back in people's pockets,” right? That's what we're going to do. But in a lot of different ways, and it has to be more direct.

You can't be waiting forever for some tax deduction that's going to help you someday in the future. So, last year, I realized that the child tax credit that we're proud to have in the State of New York was only for 4-year-olds and up. I said, “Clearly a mom didn't write that,” because the most expensive time may be those first few years, right?

You're buying everything new – the stroller, the crib, all those little outfits. So I said, common sense, “Newborn on up will get the child tax credit.” And I wanted people to get help the second the baby comes. As a result of that decision, 600,000 more children qualified for that credit – 600,000 more.

But we didn't stop there. Now we're taking the next step. And that's why as part of my State of the State Address, which will occur a week from tomorrow, I will have the most direct impact on parents' lives to get them out of poverty. It'll be the largest expansion of the child tax credit in our state's history – the largest.

For the little ones, newborn to three, we're going to increase the maximum benefit from $330 now to $1,000. That's tripling the maximum benefit for our youngest New Yorkers because we know how expensive those years are, and also increasing it for other children, 4-year-olds and on up to $500 per child per family in the family. That's 1.6 million taxpayers and 2.7 million kids who will be covered by this – 2.7 million kids.

And right now, some of the poorest families are excluded from this tax credit, and I don't want that to happen anymore. We're putting an end to that. We're making it easier to get access to this and extend full eligibility to every single family who needs our help. Let's get that done. Let's get that done. It's real money, for real families, making a real difference.

Just like Tasia Brown – you’ll be hearing from her – she’ll tell us what it's like. She works here at the Y, mom of three, including a two-year-old, who received our tax credit last year. She'll tell you what that meant to her and how far that helped her during that time. It's going to get even better. It's going to be even better.

I just took the train in. Came in on Metro-North, made friends with everybody. Happy crowd. Converted them all to Buffalo Bills fans in the process. Kind of got a rivalry between cars going back and forth, chanting the Bills’ song. I digress, I have fun on the trains.

I actually ran into a mom, maybe she’s here, who told me about a nine-month-old and a two-year-old, and said, “What's this going to mean?” I said, “What that means? Two kids? $2,000 – $2,000 for you and your family right there.”

Two years worth of diapers, a year’s supply of formula or two months of groceries, at least – months of groceries. So, it's about giving parents the peace of mind so they're not so stressed out. That's what we're trying to do here. And it also goes beyond that.

When people spend money, for every dollar we invest in a family, they're spending it – $1.25 in economic impact in those grocery stores, for the neighborhood shops, the mechanic, the plumber, everybody. They benefit when you have more money to cycle into the system because you're able to cover your expenses.

This all builds on over $5.5 billion of financial assistance that we've provided to New Yorkers since I became Governor. All this is intended to just lighten the load on our families. We had the property tax relief, the Earned Income Tax Credits, we even had gasoline tax savings. And you may have heard we raised the minimum wage and tied it to inflation for our low-wage earners to go higher up.

We doubled tuition assistance at our public colleges and universities, so people can be on that pathway like my parents. My dad got out of that trailer park because he got a college degree while he was working. Changed my life forever. I want that for everyone.

We've also secured a $7 billion investment in affordability for our child care system. And a family of four right now earning less than $108,000, your child care is capped at $15 a week. Think about that money that's back in your pocket. That's a lot of money back in your pockets. So, it's all about dignity for families. So, maybe you don't have to suffer the embarrassment that my family sometimes felt; I felt as a kid, I've talked about this.

When mom, dad, took us to the store, we couldn't go in the line where you’d check out. We went over to the layaway line. You took your clothes over here. And the other kids are over here getting their clothes brought home that day, and they wore them the next day to school. I might see mine in a month or two because mom had to make weekly payments on them. Okay? That has an effect on you. But you don't carry it like a grudge, it cultivates empathy and this sense of like, “I don't want any other child to go through that.” And that's how personal this is to me — what we can do for families in New York. And when we invest in our youngest New Yorkers, we’re investing in their future and our future as a state.

I want to support families, especially in those earliest years when you're not getting enough sleep at night. I know that. You’re stressed out. But family by family, child by child, community by community, we will make this place better and more livable and more affordable. And this decision to triple the size of this tax credit has the power to lift us out of poverty, lift our families up, continue the trajectory we're on and next week I'm going to lay out my entire vision. We're just getting warmed up, my friends.

You heard what I talked about the other day, which is the $500 back in the pockets of everybody earning less than $300,000. You know why? Because of those expenses I talked about. Because the price of everything went up; everybody paid more in sales tax to the State of New York. Maybe you didn't think about it, I did. I saw the money coming in. When my Budget Director said we had earned $3 billion more than we expected because of inflation. We said, “That doesn't belong to us. Give it back to New Yorkers. Put it back in their pockets. $500 for a family.”

We’re just getting warmed up, okay? Heading toward the Super Bowl. That's for our New Yorkers, the Super Bowl, which means we're all going to do better. We're going to have a big win. A big victory for all of us.

This is about New York State families winning, and I'm going to be there. I'm going to support them. And I thank every one of you for being the champions of these families because we'll never look back. We change their lives now, their kids don't have to have the stress that they're going through right now. That's why we do what we do. Thank you very much, everyone.

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