PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Andrew Gounardes, State Senator from New York State Senate, on Working Families Tax Credit
2:59:28
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3 min
State Senator Andrew Gounardes testified in support of Resolution 41, which calls for the adoption of the New York State Working Families Tax Credit. He highlighted the growing poverty rates in New York City and explained how the proposed tax credit would help working families afford essentials.
- The Working Families Tax Credit is modeled after the successful federal expanded child tax credit, which reduced child poverty by 50% during its implementation.
- The proposed credit would streamline existing state tax credits, increase the maximum credit to $1600 per child, and provide a minimum $100 floor for every child regardless of income.
- The credit would be paid out four times a year, allowing families to access benefits more frequently than just at tax time.
Andrew Gounardes
2:59:28
Great.
2:59:28
Thank you.
2:59:28
Can y'all hear me?
Diana Ayala
2:59:30
Yes.
2:59:30
We can.
2:59:31
Yes.
Andrew Gounardes
2:59:32
Alright.
2:59:32
Great.
2:59:33
Well, thank you very much.
2:59:34
Good afternoon, everyone.
2:59:36
I'm state senator Andrew Gennardis, and I'm here to testify, in support of resolution 41, which calls on the state to adopt or enact the New York State Working Families Tax Credit, which I am the senate sponsor of.
2:59:50
You know, just as a baseline, I I think we all know working families are struggling to get by in New York, and the problem is only getting worse.
2:59:58
Poverty in our city is soaring.
3:00:00
1 in 4 children in our city now live in poverty.
3:00:02
We saw the news yesterday that 1 in 8 children in New York, are are homeless.
3:00:08
And according to the state comptroller, New York state has one of the highest child poverty rates of any state in the country.
3:00:16
We ranked 41st out of 50, and 23% of city residents said they're struggling to pay for their basic necessities like food and housing and clothes, etcetera.
3:00:26
And that's really the basis for why I proposed and wrote the working families tax credit, which is designed to give New Yorkers the support that they need to afford the essentials for their kids, whether that be diapers, clothes, rent, just the roof over their head, pay utility bill, god forbid they wanna go to the zoo or the museum as a family, all of the essentials.
3:00:44
And it's based and it's modeled on this the incredible success we saw with the expanded federal child tax credit through the American Rescue Plan, which was president Biden's COVID relief bill, where when we bumped up the child tax credit at the federal level, for 6 months, we cut the poverty rate in this country for kids in half by 50%.
3:01:08
So the working families tax credit seeks to operate in a similar way, and it does so in a couple of important things.
3:01:14
It does a couple of
Diana Ayala
3:01:17
important things.
Andrew Gounardes
3:01:17
Number 1, it streamlines and expands several existing state tax credits, including the New York State Earned Income Tax Credit, the New York State Empire, Empire Child Credit, and the New York State Dependent Exemption.
3:01:30
The reason for that is that many of the people who claim 1 or or all 3 of those benefits, they are largely the same, and so we wanna simplify the process by which they can access those benefits.
3:01:41
The plan provides crucial support for families by increasing the maximum credit to $1600 per child and provides a minimum $100 floor for every child regardless of income.
3:01:54
It eliminates the cap
Carlos Fernando Rosales
3:01:55
Thank you.
3:01:55
Your time has expired.
Andrew Gounardes
3:01:56
Number of kids that are eligible, and it pins the credit to inflation, and it closes important loopholes like cover 17 year olds, includes ITIN filers, and eliminates a regressive income phase and and crucially, will be paid out 4 times a year so that families would not have to wait until tax time in order to see these benefits.
3:02:15
Instead, they can get a check 4 times a year to help them pay for their essentials.
3:02:20
I really encourage the council to take this resolution up.
3:02:23
It'll be incredibly helpful to our momentum in Albany to have the support of the city council to push for enactment of this bill while we are trying to meet our New York state child poverty reduction goals by 2030.
3:02:35
And I thank the committee for giving me a few moments to to chat about this.
