Hochul at Divide with Lawmakers on Child Care, Once A Top Priority

Last year, as lieutenant governor, Hochul co-chaired a task force on child care availability, which recommended that the state implement a sliding scale subsidy program that would prevent any family from paying more than 10 percent of its income for child care. In June 2021, she called the shortage of child care providers a “crisis on steroids.”

Most recently, as governor, Hochul strengthened a child care bill passed by the legislature, writing an amendment in December that required that the state’s child care task force be “integral in advising the state on how to implement a universal child care model.”

That background left advocates surprised by the relative modesty of Hochul’s State of the State proposal. “We’re concerned and disappointed because she’s been such a promoter of child care,” Hill said.

Marina Marcou-O’Malley, policy and operations director at the Alliance for Quality Education, said that the proposal was a continuation of Cuomo-era policy. “It feels like it’s the same type of approach. The Cuomo administration did not pay attention to the child care system or the needs of families,” she said.

Marcou-O’Malley is hoping “that the executive budget will be different and will include a much bolder investment,” she said. The executive budget, which Hochul is expected to release by next Tuesday, sets out the governor’s starting position for negotiations with the legislature.

Brisport’s legislative director, James Ostaszewski, said his office is attempting to set up a meeting with the governor’s staff to encourage them to include a more aggressive expansion in the executive budget.

In her remarks opening the Senate’s 2022 session, delivered the same day as Hochul’s State of the State, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) said that it is “time for us to make universal, affordable child care a reality in our state,” raising proponents’ hopes that the legislature will push for additional child care funding beyond Hochul’s proposal.

Ostaszewski noted that it’s common for legislative leadership to push governors to expand on their initial spending proposals, and said that he expects Stewart-Cousins to do so.

Mike Murphy, a spokesperson for the Senate Democratic conference, said that the chamber’s leadership doesn’t favor Brisport’s or Ramos’ bill over the other, but reaffirmed Stewart-Cousins’ commitment to achieving universality. “We aren’t signing on to a specific proposal but a combination with the end goal being universal child care,” he said.

He added that Senate Democrats “want action” whether or not the Build Back Better Act becomes law.

Hevesi, the Queens Assemblymember, said that Assembly leadership also supports a dramatic boost to child care funding. “I’ve spoken to leadership, and I have the impression that they are open to the same kind of conversation that Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins is open to,” he said. A spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) did not respond to a request for comment.

A Hochul spokesperson expressed willingness to negotiate details with the legislature. “Governor Hochul’s proposal to expand access to the state’s child care program, the details of which will be included in the executive proposed budget released later this month, would be a starting point for discussion with the Legislature on how to meaningfully expand access to child care,” the spokesperson said.

Proponents of expanded child care sought to downplay the differences between Brisport’s and Ramos’ bills. “We support any initiative that drives towards universal [child care],” Hill said. “We think that they align, and can be further aligned into one big universal child care plan.”

Ramos said that amalgamation of similar but distinct bills is “usually what ends up happening with budget items.” She recently signed on as a cosponsor to Brisport’s bill, and is hoping that Brisport will likewise sign on to her bill, she added.

Ostaszewski said that Brisport has not yet decided whether or not to sign on to Ramos’ bill, but that the two bills reflect a “pretty broad consensus within the Senate that we need to go farther” than the governor’s proposal. The two senators’ offices are having “ongoing conversations” and the final version advanced by the Senate might incorporate elements from each of the two bills, Ostaszewski added.

“We all know that we need to be pulling in the same direction rather than fighting amongst ourselves,” he said.