State lawmakers leading the fight to achieve universal child care coverage said they back the child care investments Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced so far, but hope she’ll include more robust proposals in next week’s State of the State address.

Proposals to make child care more affordable and available for families will be a top issue this budget cycle as part of lawmakers' heightened focus on affordability.

"The last people we should be turning away from child care assistance are those who are the lowest paid," said Dede Hill, policy director with the Schuyler Center for Analysis & Advocacy Inc. "It seems, as a matter of equity, that they should actually be first on the list and not excluded."

Child care advocates and lawmakers are pushing Hochul to remove minimum earning requirements for child care subsidies — mirrored after a bill she vetoed last month, arguing the fiscal policy belongs in the state budget.

Assembly sponsor Sarah Clark said it would help lift New Yorkers who make under the minimum wage out of poverty, and lawmakers plan to be adamant it be in the annual spending plan.

"The Legislature is ready to do our part to fight for this in the budget this year," Clark said Friday. "Ignoring it and not fixing this sort of archaic rule for our lowest income families is crazy to not address it — given how expensive everything is for everyone."

State Senate sponsor Jessica Ramos said she's also pushing the governor to include the proposal in her executive budget.

"There really isn't any increased cost [to the state], but if the governor is going to disagree with us on that, then I welcome the conversation," Ramos told Spectrum News 1.

Earlier this week, Hochul announced a host of child care proposals and said state leaders will find a way to achieve universal child care in the coming years. But the governor has come out in support of a universal child care program in the past, and lawmakers said the executive and Legislature must pick up the pace to make that promise a reality.

Hochul wants $110 million to build new child care centers and triple the state child tax credit to $1,000 per child under age 4. She also backs creating a pool of substittue teachers to help with staff shortages and make child care more available across the state.

"New York families, we hear you, we know the struggles, we know what you're going through," Hochul said at a press event Tuesday. "We're going to do everything in our power to deliver policies and programs and financial support to help you get through these tough times."

The state will also create a coalition of tax experts, business and union leaders to identify a path to universal child care. 

The governor will give more details in her fourth State of the State address to be delivered in Albany on Tuesday.

But lawmakers who've led the fight for universal child care coverage, like Clark said the state does not need more recommendations, and must increase worker salaries.

She sponsors a bill to create a continuous funding stream to support early childhood education teachers, who make an average salary of $39,000 per year, and legislation to impose a payroll tax on large child care providers to boost staff pay and cap costs for families.

"It's not a career that you can, financially, have self-sufficiency and move up and really take care of yourself and your family," Clark said.

Hochul said it's about 155% more expensive to put a child through child care than through a public college or university in the state.