With the victory of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, whether or not New York will take meaningful steps toward universal child care in this upcoming state budget has become a key question in the ramp up to the 2026 legislative session.
Advocates with the Empire State Campaign for Child Care, who have long lobbied the state to set out on a realistic path to a universal system seized on the energy and attention, unveiled on Monday a proposal for initiating next steps that they hope Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers can get on board with.
It comes as signals point to Hochul making some sort of move in this year’s State of the State and budget proposals at the urging of Mamdani, though Hochul herself has long pushed the state to.
“We’re trying to achieve a system where all families that need care and seek it out can receive it,” said Pete Nabozny, director of policy for The Children’s Agenda. “Clearly there is an openness and a desire to do something really significant to get New York on a path to universal child care.”
Their plan is three-tiered. It would include a a bump in wages for child care workers, but the key element would be community bridge projects which would serve to transition the state from the current situation where eligibility for the Child Care Assistance Program has been expanded dramatically but the state struggles to fund it, and a true universal system.
The campaign unveiled two models that they hope can be launched in communities across the state and expanded until child care is truly universal.
The first would center around community eligibility, making child care fully free and available to all families with children in communities where there are a significant number of low-income families. The other would allow all families in a given community to access child care through a participating provider at a cost of $100 a week.
In both cases, they would not be subject to income, work or immigration status tests, which advocates say is key in establishing a truly universal system.
Dede Hill, policy director at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, stressed that the coalition sees the programs as concrete first steps, rather than experimental tinkering.
“Stepping stones toward a goal we share with Gov. Hochul, Mayor-elect Mamdani to achieve universal child care,” she said.
The final piece is to fully fund the Child Care Assistance Program as the state ramps up these bridge projects and other initiatives in order to avoid the situation which unraveled in this year’s state budget, where were funding shortfalls to the program resulted in counties across the state closing enrollment or creating waitlists that still persist despite an intervention late in the negotiating process.
“I don’t think it’s possible to take meaningful steps toward universal child care while leaving often very low-income families all over the state without access to this critical program,” Nabozny said.
Last week, Hochul’s Budget Director Blake Washington spoke with reporters after a hearing with agency commissioners. Spectrum News 1 asked Washington whether or not the governor is considering implementing bridge projects in this upcoming state budget. Washington was noncommittal, but indicated such a plan is being considered.
“What are the interventions we can do in the near term to get to the goal, I think everything is on the table — that and more. The governor wants this to be successful,” he said.
This is of course all tied into the tax question and whether or not Hochul will relent to some sort of tax increase — either what Mamdani is pushing for, which is a 2% increase on the state’s high earners, or an increase to the corporate tax rate, which Hochul has reportedly considered.
The state Legislature has long supported a tax increase on millionaires and billionaires, but Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris acknowledged that even with that, the logistics point to some sort of phase-in.
“There will be some ramp-up period. My hope is that we do it as quickly as humanly possible and not over a 10-year period,” he said. “You have to think of it in the sense that the people who need it now, that have children who need day care now, if you wait three or four or five years, they won’t need it anymore — those kids will be in school.”