More than 1250 individuals, 35 organizations sign letter asking Hochul to increase taxes on wealthy to pay for measures recommended by Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council
(Albany, NY) — Religious and anti-poverty advocates gathered in Albany on Dec. 22 to deliver a petition signed by 35 organizations and over 1,250 New Yorkers, calling on Gov. Hochul to implement recommendations released earlier that week by the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council and pay for them by fairly taxing the richest corporations and individuals.
New York State has a higher child poverty rate than 40 other states. According to recently released census data, Syracuse has the highest child poverty rate of any large city in the nation, and Rochester and Buffalo were also in the top 10.
Participants delivered the petition to the Governor’s Mansion at the end of a Las Posadas procession. Las Posadas is a tradition from Mexico and Central America that commemorates the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, when they were told there was “no room at the inn.”
“Today, advocates recreate this tradition by asking for ‘posada’ (lodging) in places where our communities continue to be denied the resources, access, and services they need to survive and thrive,” explained Arelis Figueroa, co-founder and lead pastor of La Iglesia del Pueblo. “We are asking Gov. Hochul to instead say yes to the needs of New Yorkers in this year’s budget and follow through on New York’s commitment to cut child poverty in half. There is room in our state budget to lift our children out of poverty.”
Outside the Governor’s Mansion, advocates hung a banner that read “Tax the Rich, End Child Poverty.” The Child Poverty Reduction Act, which Gov. Hochul signed into law in 2021, set a target of reducing child poverty by 50 percent by 2031 and established the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council. The Council voted Wednesday on its recommendations, which include increasing the state’s child tax credit and Cash Assistance program benefit, creating a state housing voucher program, and creating a state nutrition assistance program that would reach families currently ineligible for SNAP.
The Urban Institute estimates the total cost of the recommendations to be $9 billion. State legislators have proposed bills that would raise an estimated $46 billion annually through tax increases targeting the wealthiest corporations and individuals.
“Childhood poverty affects children physically, and emotionally,” said Bebhinn Francis of Albany, an organizer with the NYS Poor People’s Campaign. “I experienced childhood poverty and have long-term health issues due to the inadequate nutrition and stress I endured. I have had depression and anxiety for as long as I can remember, and I carry post traumatic stress and food insecurity with me until this very day.”
“As an educator for 30 years, I quickly learned students cannot focus on learning if they are hungry, if they don’t have the stability of a home, or if they are hiding the shame and stigma of poverty and think it’s their fault, when in fact it is the system’s fault. We must invest in our children, they are our future,” said Raamitha Pillay of Colton, tri-chair of the NYS Poor People’s Campaign.
“While policymakers in DC seem ready to make cuts to social programs and cut taxes for billionaires, we need New York to step up and direct the enormous resources of our state toward protecting the most vulnerable. The richest corporations and individuals in our state can absolutely afford to pay a little bit more so we can invest in policies that will help 1.5 million families,” said Rev. West McNeill, Executive Director of the NYS Labor-Religion Coalition.
“Raising our children involves many expenses, so we have to work very hard and even then we cannot provide everything our children deserve – good health insurance, good education, adequate nutrition,” said Blanca Miranda of Albany. “That is why we are here to ask the governor to keep her word and make New York State reduce child poverty. My daughter Valentina, my nephews, and nieces and all the children of New York deserve a better future.”
“In this season, Christians, like myself, are preparing for the time when a homeless child, an undocumented immigrant and refugee, a low wage day laborer who would experience poverty all his life, a person living in a cruel society is recognized as someone who can turn the world around and usher in a reign of justice and peace,” said Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Executive Director of the Kairos Center and National Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. “But as people experience in las Posadas, we are told there’s no room in the inn – no housing for the homeless, no health care for the sick, no refuge for the immigrant, no peace for the veteran, no shelter for those whose lives and livelihoods have been devastated by storms and extreme weather, no freedom for the oppressed. So we headed to the Governor’s mansion to leave our petition, to share our message, that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can end child poverty and we can end it now.”
Petition Delivered to Gov. Hochul:
We write to you as concerned organizations, congregations and individuals from across New York State to urge you to include measures in your Executive Budget to cut child poverty in half, and to pay for these policies through progressive taxes targeting our state’s wealthiest individuals and corporations. Especially as the incoming Trump administration signals its intention to cut funding for safety net programs and cut taxes for the rich, New York must take bold, proactive steps to protect the most vulnerable New Yorkers and rein in the flow of wealth from the bottom to the top.
As your administration has recognized, child poverty in New York is at unacceptable levels. Our child poverty rate is higher than 40 other states, with 1 in 5 kids living in poverty. In the Bronx, more than a third of children are in poverty, and in Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse the rate is more than 40 percent. As common sense and countless studies show, poverty has devastating consequences on children’s well-being and their future development. New York has a moral obligation to confront this crisis.
We applaud the commitment New York made in 2021 through the Child Poverty Reduction Act to cut child poverty in half over the following decade. While we believe New York can and must aim to abolish child poverty altogether, this is an important first target. Thanks to the work of the Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council, we now have a package of policies that would achieve this goal. They include:
– Increasing the Empire Child Credit from $330 per child to $1,500 per child annually, expanding eligibility to include the lowest income families, and indexing the credit amount to inflation.
– Creating a state rental assistance program to serve income-eligible renting households. The program would cover the difference between the rent and 30% of household income, would be available to households regardless of immigration status, and would be an entitlement so that all income-eligible renting households would be able to access support.
– Doubling the Cash Assistance program benefit amount and indexing it to inflation.
– Creating a state Food Assistance Program that would cover the nearly 65,000 households with children that are currently excluded from participating in SNAP due to their family’s immigration status.
We call on you to include this full policy package in your 2026 Executive Budget. The Urban Institute estimates these policies would reduce child poverty by 50% if they are fully implemented and reach every eligible household. Although full implementation will take time, child poverty is continuing to rise, and federal policies on the horizon may move us in the wrong direction. Now is the time for decisive action for New Yorkers in need. Including the full package of policies in your budget would demonstrate that New York is serious about meeting the 50% child poverty reduction goal by 2032.
New York has the resources to make this transformative investment in our children and families. Our state is home to 139 billionaires, as well as some of the wealthiest, most profitable corporations in the world. In the first half of 2024, for example, Wall Street posted profits of $23.2 billion, nearly 80% higher than the previous year.
We call on you to fund these child poverty reduction policies through progressive taxes that target the ultra-wealthy. The Urban Institute estimates the cost of this policy package to be just under $9 billion.There are proposals currently in the NYS legislature that would raise more than five times that amount by modestly increasing taxes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations. These include implementing a capital gains tax, raising corporate taxes on the most profitable companies, making our income taxes more progressive, taxing billionaire wealth, and creating an heirs’ tax.
As the Trump administration prepares to cut taxes on the wealthy and cut safety net programs, New York can take the opposite path to invest in our families and communities. We are facing hard times ahead, especially for already vulnerable communities, including immigrants, LGBTQ people, and poor and low-income people. It is all the more urgent for New York to marshal the abundant resources of our state to help struggling families weather the challenges to come. We look forward to working with you to accomplish this through the 2026 New York State Budget.
Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice
NYS Labor-Religion Coalition
NYS Poor People’s Campaign
Advent Lutheran Church
All Souls Bethlehem Church Council
Broadway Community Inc.
Broadway United Church of Christ
Citizen Action of New York
Community Lunch Program for Kids (Norfolk, NY)
Dominican Sisters of Sparkill
Fairport United Methodist Church
First Presbyterian Church of Beacon
First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn
First Presbyterian Church of Forest Hills
First Presbyterian Union Church of Owego
Housing Works
Inwood Indivisible
Irvington Presbyterian Church
Judson Memorial Church
Messiah Lutheran Church, Rotterdam
Middle Church, New York City
Mujeres Divinas
North Country Peace Group
NYS Council of Churches
Rotterdam Community Center
Saratoga -Presbyterian – United Church of Christ
Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Westchester
The Riverside Church in the City of New York
Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan
United Church of Fayetteville
United Muslim Alliance of Albany
United Tenants of Albany
Upper Room Inclusive Community
Westchester Meditation Center
Westchester Women’s Agenda
YMCA of Greater NY