New Tax Could Provide Child Care For 84K NYC Kids, Stringer Says

NEW YORK — A new tax on New York City's largest businesses could help thousands of families afford child care for their infants and toddlers, City Comptroller Scott Stringer says.

Stringer on Friday unveiled what his office calls a first-in-the-nation plan for the city to expand subsidies for child care for kids younger than 3, which he said is too expensive and too hard to access for many parents.

His proposal, dubbed "NYC Under 3," would offer free care to the poorest families and greatly cut costs on a sliding scale for those making up to $103,000 a year. The program would benefit about 84,000 kids at a rough annual cost of $660 million when fully implemented after five years, a bill to be be footed by a new payroll tax, the comptroller's office said.

"Parents are being fored to choose between paying rent, putting food on the table and providing quality care for their kids," Stringer, a Democrat, said at a news conference on the Lower East Side. "Our plan tackles this head on to bring that bill down to zero for the families who need it the most."

State legislators have introduced a bill to establish the tax on private companies with payrolls of $2.5 million or more. That threshold would exempt about 95 percent of the city's businesses, while those that do have to pay would reap the economic benefits of subsidized child care, Stringer argues.

But it's uncertain how far the proposal will get this year, as the state Legislature is only in session for about another month and has other meaty issues to tackle, such as reforming rent regulations.

It's also uncertain whether Mayor Bill de Blasio — who was on the presidential campaign trail in Iowa in Friday — will want to implement the proposal. His office did not respond to a request for comment on it.

Using a mix of local, state and federal money, the city offers child care through its EarlyLearnNYC initiative and a voucher program to families with incomes as high as twice the poverty line, or about $50,000 for a family of four, according to Stringer's office.

While the existing programs serve about 97,000 kids, Stringer's office estimates that they only help about one in seven children younger than 3 in eligible families.

Child care is a hefty financial burden for families who don't get help — a spot in the center in the city costs about $21,000, Stringer's office says. And many New Yorkers live in "child care deserts" with only a tiny number of seats, according to the office.

Stringer's proposal would expand the availability of subsidies to families making as much as 400% of poverty, or $103,000 for a family of four. Those below the poverty line — $25,750 for a family of four — would pay nothing while those in the top earnings bracket would pay 12 percent of their income, or $12,360 a year.

Such an expansion would allow 20,000 parents, most of them women, to get back into the work force and take home an additional $540 million a year in earnings, which would be a shot in the arm for the city's economy, Stringer said.

"It adds value to big businesses, because the more people in the workforce, that is something that everyone agrees is critical," he said.

But the head of the Partnership for New York City, a major business group, said a tax is the wrong approach to funding the proposal even though it's a good idea.

"The Comptroller’s audits of city agencies have found more than enough potential savings to provide a child care benefit without imposing yet another new tax on New York’s business community," Kathryn Wylde, the partnership's president and CEO, said in a statement.

Stringer's plan also calls for $500 million in bonded capital money to build new child care centers, though he did not specify how many. And it would spend at least $50 million in its first year to boost payments to child care providers.

Advocates applauded Stringer's plan, saying it promises to help struggling parents care for the city's youngest children.

"This new proposal offers both a vision for expanding access to quality care and the revenue to pay for that care," Betty Holcomb, the policy director for the Center for Children’s Initiatives, said in a statement. "Not only that, but the research on such an investment is clear and convincing: investments in the early years more than pay for themselves, producing benefits for children and families, schools, communities and local businesses."

The proposal comes less than a month after the de Blasio administration narrowly avoided a strike by thousands of pre-kindergarten teachers who have pushed for higher pay, according to Chalkbeat New York.

And it comes as Stringer reportedly prepares for a mayoral run with de Blasio, a Democrat, criss-crossing the country in his White House bid. But the comptroller said the plan is just part of his job.

"I think that we shouldn't think about major proposals like this through the lens of who's running for what." he said. "Why don't we see if we can get this done?"