Task force releases child poverty report, $9B recommendations

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Efforts to combat child poverty in New York intensified as the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council (CPRAC) issued its final report, calling for targeted policies to cut child poverty in half by December 2031. On December 18, the CPRAC voted to to release the report, with recommendations costing a projected $9 billion.

You can read the full report at the bottom of this story, and you can watch a clip of Barbara Guinn—Commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance that oversees CPRAC—reviewing the report's major proposals below:

Or, check out the full meeting online.

Since passing the Child Poverty Reduction Act, New York expanded its Empire State Child Credit to kids under 4, raised minimum wages across sectors, and earmarked $7.5 billion for child care over four years. Those moves could meet early projected targets of lowering child poverty by 9.5%.

But after two years of research, the report proposed that the state invest even more in housing, tax, and public benefits. The report also proposed indexing public benefits to inflation.

The CPRAC bundled three groups of proposals, each projected to reduce child poverty by at least 41% before 2032. Analysis from the Urban Institute projected that child poverty reduction effect could hit 50.5% through the most aggressive package of policies, including an increased Empire State Child Credit and a state-level housing voucher program.

A revamped Empire State Child Credit would be decoupled from the federal credit, be capped higher—at $1,500 per child—and remove minimum income requirements. The report estimated that this change alone would cut child poverty by 23.2%.

The report also proposed doubling the public assistance basic allowance, which gives grants to families, thereby reducing child poverty by another 18.1%.

According to the report, New York could also create a housing voucher plan that aligns with and improves on the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program. So doing could lower child poverty by 15.7% more, CPRAC said.

The report proposed applying the same rules about income disregards to people applying for public aid and people who already receive benefits. In other words, both applicants and recipients could disregard the same percentage of their earnings when calculating how much assistance they can receive.

For example, a New York City family of three can earn up to $29,640 a year and still get public assistance, even though their income must be below $9,468 a year to apply. Currently, 62% of their earnings are not counted—disregarded—when calculating benefits.

A consistent, across the board earned income disregard like this could be worth another 2.9% reduction in statewide childhood poverty, per the report. And it would incentivize employment, softening the financial penalty of earning more.

A new state food benefit program to complement federal offers would be worth another 1.6% reduction. The report recommended targeting families excluded from SNAP by virtue of not being U.S. citizens.

The percentages laid out total a potential 50.5% reduction in poverty rates among all New Yorkers under 19 years old. But the report projected that poverty among children under 5 would drop even further—by 52.6%—under that plan. Across all ages, it would apparently reduce poverty by 20.8%.

The package could also impact racial disparities. Black child poverty could fall by 54.2% and Hispanic child poverty by 53.3%.

Implementing the changes could help over 1.5 million families in New York, with an average annual increase of $3,608 per household. The estimated annual cost of the most ambitious package is about $9 billion.

"The cost of living is crushing working-class and middle-class families in New York, making it hard to raise children here and pushing people into poverty. But it doesn’t have to be this way," said Democratic State Sen. Andrew Gounardes. "As the report outlines, there are policies we can implement to put more money in New Yorkers’ pockets and help them make ends meet—and my Working Families Tax Credit is at the top of the list."

Gounardes pointed out that CPRAC's top recommendation to expand the child tax credit corresponds with his proposed bill, S277C/A4022C. It would raise the maximum credit to $1,600 per child and do away with income phase ins and caps on eligible children.

The proposed Working Families Tax Credit would adjust for inflation and decrease as incomes rise, beginning at $75,000 for single filers and $110,000 for joint filers. And according to the senator, the quarterly payments in his bill, rather than annual, would better support needy families.

And as Gounardes pushed New York's legislative branch to act, so too are activists and advocates pushing the executive. Groups like the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State and the New York State Poor People’s Campaign want Gov. Kathy Hochul to target child poverty in her 2026 budget.

They plan to demonstrate in Albany on December 22 during a Las Posadas procession. Modeled after a traditional Mexican holiday, the event starts with a press conference at Albany’s First Presbyterian Church and ends at the Governor's Mansion.

That's where they plan to deliver a petition or letter asking Hochul to back the proposals from the report. Organizers said you must RSVP to participate, or you can sign the petition if not. They characterized New York as the richest state in the country, home to 139 billionaires.

Over 800,000 children in New York experience poverty, with the state ranking fourth in the nation, according to Census data in the report. It said that over one in five New York children lived in poverty in 2022, disproportionately in Black, Hispanic, and other marginalized communities. More than half of all households in New York spent over 30% of income on rent—which HUD defines as "rent-burdened"—with many of those spending over 50%.

As working parents struggle to feed their kids, research in the report revealed how poverty damages childhood development. It showed lifelong deficits in school performance and financial stability, alongside more illness, homelessness, and crime. For example, it found that only about 48% of poor 5-year-olds are considered ready for school, compared to 75% of 5-year-olds from higher-income families. Those kids are likelier to have problems learning, drop out of school, make less money over their lifetimes, and perpetuate generational poverty.

The report also included a 2018 study estimating that child poverty dinged the U.S. economy by $1 trillion in 2015. That was 5.4% of the GDP, with New York’s share costing roughly $60 billion.

Cities like Syracuse and Rochester are among the hardest-hit. Census data determined that Syracuse has one of the highest child poverty rate among large U.S. cities, with 45% of children below the federal poverty line. Rochester and even Buffalo also rank highly, with poverty rates above 40%.

That's "a rate nearly double the statewide average," according to a press release from the Attorney General's Office. "Visits to food pantries and meal programs in [Rochester] increased 34% from 2023 to 2024, with Black and Hispanic New Yorkers in the Rochester region more than three times as likely to be food insecure."

Low wages and employment disparities, especially for women of color, have widened these gaps over decades.

CPRAC, created under the Child Poverty Reduction Act in 2021, seeks to cut child poverty in half by 2032, from 13% to 6%.

Take a look at the full report below: