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Climate Change, Child Poverty, and a Whirlwind Tour of New York Policymaking: 2024 in Review

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<p dir="ltr"><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/12/28/julia-rock-year-in-review-2024">New York Focus</a>, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. </em><a href="https://nysfocus.com/newsletter?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=website" target="_blank"><em>Sign up for their newsletter here</em></a><em>.</em></p><hr><p><b>NEW YORK STATE</b> · December 28, 2024</p>
<h1>Climate Change, Child Poverty, and a Whirlwind Tour of New York Policymaking: 2024 in Review</h1>
<h2>New York Focus reporter Julia Rock reflects on her varied coverage of state policy in an end-of-year wrapup.</h2>
<h3>By <a class="yellow-underline" href="https://nysfocus.com/author/julia-rock">Julia Rock</a> , New York Focus</h3><figure><img src="https://imgproxy.gridwork.co/9sR_FkU1jd_8q87JfWIhs3JN7oh6ikYR810a-z6-F8s/w:820/h:546/rt:fill/g:fp:0.5:0.5/q:90/el:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy51cy1lYXN0LTIuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbS9ueXNmb2N1cy9KdWxpYS1Sb2NrLUVuZC1vZi1ZZWFyLnBuZw.png" alt="Photograph of Julia Rock in front of a photo of a power plant." /><figcaption> Photos: Wally Gobetz / Flickr; New York Focus</figcaption></figure>	<p><em>From now until Dec. 31, your donation to New York Focus is tripled by matching donors. Support <a target="_blank" href="https://nysfocus.com/donate" rel="noreferrer noopener">us here</a>.</em></p>			<div id="wisepops-embed-newsletter-variant2"></div>
		
	<p dir="ltr">When I started at New York Focus just over a year ago, I was new to New York state government and the many opaque institutions and processes that comprise it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Luckily, it’s my job to ask questions. I’ve learned a lot this year and hopefully taught you something as well, but I’m always going to approach this job with a beginner’s mind.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I started off 2024 on the climate/environment beat, often reporting with my colleague <a href="https://nysfocus.com/author/colin-kinniburgh">Colin Kinniburgh</a>. My question was often — what is New York doing about the dilemmas of climate change and environmental degradation, and what gets in the way of action?</p>
<p dir="ltr">Colin and I teamed up on an <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/02/02/fossil-fuel-subsidy-ida-new-york">investigation</a> into the local economic development agencies that have doled out tens of millions of dollars annually to fossil fuel plants, seemingly putting localities in conflict with the state’s ambitious climate <a href="https://climate.ny.gov/">goals</a>. “If we’ve got one level [of government] fighting the other level, that drags out the transition to renewables,” Assemblymember Al Stirpe, chair of his chamber’s economic development committee, told us about the tax breaks.</p>	<p dir="ltr">In her state budget opening salvo, Governor Kathy Hochul <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/01/22/ny-heat-act-hochul-100-foot-rule">endorsed</a>
 a move to wean the state off natural gas. But even with the backing of 
the governor, who exerts immense control over the budget process, the 
measure’s momentum came to a halt. I <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/04/19/new-york-heat-act-state-budget">reported</a>
 (again, with Colin) that the gas transition plan was killed by the 
Assembly which, helmed by Speaker Carl Heastie, has frequently been 
where climate policy has died in recent years. We reported that Assembly
 leadership ignored members’ requests to debate the measure.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Another reason it may have died: The main opponent of the 
measure was the gas utility National Fuel. While about three-quarters of
 Democrats in the entire Assembly supported the plan, only one in six 
whose districts were in National Fuel’s service territory did the same.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We also covered a <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/06/10/home-insurance-climate-change-fossil-fuels">bill</a>
 that promises to cause a fight in future legislative sessions. It’s an 
effort to tackle a root cause of the climate crisis and one of its major
 effects. The Insuring our Future Act would ban insurers from 
underwriting new fossil fuel projects, and would require them to phase 
out their fossil fuel investments. It would also establish new 
protections against insurers refusing to provide coverage for New York 
homeowners.</p>	<p dir="ltr">During the legislative session, New York Focus published a 
few big budget roundups. While working on those, I noticed that both the
 Senate and Assembly had proposed expanding tax credits for low-income 
people with children. I had written about the expanded federal child tax
 credit while covering national politics, but that measure expired 
during the Biden administration, causing child poverty to spike. I <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/04/09/child-tax-credit-poverty-new-york">wondered</a>
 — is New York, which has some of the highest child poverty rates in the
 country, going to act? A small, temporary boost in tax credits to 
parents with children did make it into the final budget.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Then, in recent months, both <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/08/15/senator-ashby-baby-bonus-new-york-child-tax-credit">Republican</a> and <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/11/04/new-york-birth-grant-medicaid-cash-parents">Democratic</a>
 lawmakers put forth proposals to send cash to parents of new children. 
“It’s the thing to do this year,” said Pete Nabozny, policy director at 
the Rochester-based advocacy organization The Children’s Agenda. Between
 those proposals, an incoming federal administration promising to slash 
public assistance programs, and the governor’s Child Poverty Reduction 
Advisory Council’s new recommendations on how the state can cut child 
poverty, I’m prepared for a legislative fight over state spending on 
poverty in 2025.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The legislative session took me on a whirlwind tour of a 
policymaking process that is sometimes secretive, rushed, and full of 
mysteries. Who was behind a group called “New Yorkers for Local 
Businesses” leading the charge against major legislation to crack down 
on wage theft? (<a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/05/09/mcdonalds-lobbying-empire-act-wage-theft">McDonald’s franchise owners.</a>) Why were state Democrats <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/05/18/harvey-weinstein-sexual-assault-evidence-biden">backing a crime bill</a>
 that was too draconian for tough-on-crime then-Senator Joe Biden in 
1994? Had lawmakers studied the effects of a more than $500 million 
annual commercial real estate tax break before they quietly passed it at
 the end of session without debate? (<a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/08/13/cbc-hochul-veto-icap-commercial-real-estate-tax-break">No.</a>) Was Hochul’s sudden congestion pricing “pause” <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/06/06/hochul-congestion-pricing-mta-lawsuit">legal</a>? Why did the <span class="caps">MTA</span>’s own union, once a major congestion pricing backer, <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/07/26/mta-union-hochul-congestion-pricing">turn against it</a> last spring? Who was behind a <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/03/26/israel-pac-new-york-election-democrats">new political action committee</a> <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/06/06/new-york-elections-israel-donations">spending</a> to boost pro-Israel Democrats in state elections?</p>	<p dir="ltr">This fall, I had time to step back and cover some bigger 
picture problems at the nexus of health, social policy, and labor. I 
wrote about the <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/08/19/new-york-state-is-illegally-stalling-on-food-and-cash-aid-decisions-lawsuit-charges">tens of thousands</a>
 of New Yorkers who are waiting for the state to make decisions on their
 food and cash assistance benefits. I learned that child care providers 
across the state have been <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/10/01/child-care-funding-century-foundation">struggling to retain workers</a> as pandemic-era federal assistance dries up. And I <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2024/12/03/new-york-wage-theft-greatcare-medicaid">asked about the role</a>
 that the state’s privately contracted Medicaid insurance plans play in 
wage theft in the home care sector. I also had some time to work on an 
investigation that I’m excited to publish next year.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I’m motivated to understand the systems that maintain and 
exacerbate poverty and inequality, and the way economic conditions 
impact health. If you have any ideas for questions I should be asking, 
or how to answer them, please reach out: <a href="mailto:julia@nysfocus.com">julia@nysfocus.com</a>.</p>	 
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