Governor Hochul: “So, as the first mother Governor of New York, first woman who ever held this position who has children who knows the challenges of child care, the affordability crisis, even finding enough slots. I know what this can do. It kept me from my career many years ago when I didn't have any alternatives. And so, this is an issue that I feel deeply about that. I want to make sure that all families have access to good, high quality, affordable childcare…I'm proud to announce today over 100 million dollars we’re investing in child care.”
Hochul: “We're focused on affordability, making life easier, more affordable here in the State of New York and focusing on our families will give them the resources they need to thrive in our state and also help our employers be the place people want to work.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced two new initiatives totaling a combined $100 million in funding designed to increase child care supply for New York State’s families. The announcement includes $50 million in capital funding to provide grants for the construction of new child care centers and registered school-age child care programs or the expansion of existing centers. An additional $50 million in business tax credits will be available for eligible businesses that create or expand infant and toddler child care seats for their employees directly or through a third-party. The capital funding and the employer tax credit complement the historic more than $7 billion state investment by Governor Hochul designed to expand access to affordable child care, invest in New York State’s child care workforce, and support working families over a four-year period. Governor Hochul made the announcement today during a visit to a child care center in Albany.
B-ROLL of the Governor meeting with children and reading to children is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Good morning. I'm joined here by Commissioner of the Department of Labor, Roberta Reardon, as well as our Commissioner of the Office of Child and Family Services. Gustav, Miles, or Miles Gustav, and I want to thank them both for what they're doing here today. This is an example of what we are trying to do all over the state, and this is a child care center where I just had the pleasure of playing with children of all ages, but had a chance to read a book about snow to three and four year olds, and was able to talk to them about the majesty of a beautiful snowflakes.
We had a lot of fun with the kids just a few moments ago but why this is so important. When you see children here. That means the parents are able to be at work and many of the people who work here actually work for the Department of Labor. And so, this gives people that opportunity that is denied to so many other places and I'm proud that we have this in the state of New York, but I also want to make sure that this is expanded.
So, as the first mother Governor of New York, first woman who ever held this position who has children who knows the challenges of child care, the affordability crisis, even finding enough slots. I know what this can do. It kept me from my career many years ago when I didn't have any alternatives. And so, this is an issue that I feel deeply about that.
I want to make sure that all families have access to good, high quality, affordable childcare. And we're looking at statistics that are just very deeply troubling in terms of what those challenges are for young families in particular. Here's what we want to focus on. When I first became governor, I talked about how when we have our businesses who are coming to us.
Let's find a pathway for particularly new businesses as they're setting up shop that they can actually start incorporating a childcare facility on their premises. I'm really proud that I was able to be there to acknowledge that Micron, which is bringing 50,000 jobs to Upstate New York, is literally right now building an onsite childcare center. That is the model that we are looking for.
We also know that there are times when we need to make sure that there are incentives for businesses who can't always afford to do this – some can and some cannot, but the objective is still the same.
I'm proud to announce today over 100 million dollar we’re investing in child care. The first is a $50 million tax credit to incentivize businesses to either create on site or to pay for a third party to provide the services of child care, whether it's in the vicinity or how they want to manage this. So, it's a 50 million tax credit to help increase the supply of child care slots for employees.
I think this is going to be helpful for businesses in particular in a tight labor market. This can be the difference between someone working for one employer or another based on whether or not they have child care available. Our commissioner has said that's why a lot of DOL workers can be on site here because of the availability of this great site.
So, we also want to talk about how it's about building capital buildings. Okay, $50 million we're announcing to build new child care centers and expand those that are already operating. So, $50 million in a tax credit to help incentivize businesses to do the right thing. Also, let's start building more facilities and adding more capacity.
The projects have to be shovel ready and operational within six months of completing construction. So, all of this is a road map toward a better future for our families and for their children and continues on our $7.6 billion investment overall, which we announced two years ago where we kept child care costs.
Also expanding the child care tax credit, which I have pointed out that it was available only for parents with children age four year olds and up, not for babies to four. And I pointed out to our team last year and I said, “But that's some of the most expensive time in a child's life when you're constantly, they're out growing the clothes every three months and you have to buy these expensive formulas that are sometimes in short supply.” So, I said, “Let's make it easier on all families here in New York.”
We're focused on affordability, making life easier, more affordable here in the State of New York and focusing on our families will give them the resources they need to thrive in our state and also help our employers be the place people want to work.