New York’s child care assistance program, the primary way the state provides child care assistance, has been thrown a life preserver in the form of a $400 million infusion that forced Gov. Kathy Hochul to dial back one of her signature budget proposals — inflation rebate checks for many New Yorkers.  

Child care advocates are now breathing a sigh of relief, but not for long as they say the funding doesn’t address the scope of the problem, nor is its allocation adequate to stave off a worsening crisis upstate.

As Hochul kicked off a victory lap to celebrate what she is framing as a budget victory despite an actual enacted budget still being days away, she did so at an Albany child care center.

There, Hochul explained that the cost of plugging a hole in the voucher program along with a three-week correction officer strike were responsible for shrinking the inflation refund checks from $300 payments for single New York taxpayers and $500 for joint filers, as initially proposed, to $200 for individuals and $400 joint filers.

“We’re taking some of the money from the rebate check, yes we are,” she said. “Now we’re adding $400 million so that families have the vouchers they need to get the child care they deserve.”

The cause of the crisis has been characterized as a combination of an expansion of eligibility as well as a reliance on pandemic-era funding and the potential for federal cuts. More workers heading back to the office hasn’t helped.

For state lawmakers like Assemblymember Sarah Clark, the potential for eligible families across the state to be turned away was enough to drop other child care priorities and find a way to increase funding, even as the state faces a multifaceted crisis well beyond this one program.

“It will go a long way toward helping,” she said of the $400 million “But it’s a long way from solving the crisis.”

Of the cash infusion, $350 million is projected to go toward New York City. While the crisis downstate is unique in its size and scope, the rest of the state is in a significant amount of trouble but only receiving $50 million.

While program closures in New York City are impending, they’re already underway upstate. Clark said 10 counties have already closed enrollment, mostly rural areas that have seen more families enroll in recent years while outdated funding formulas have failed to keep up.

“As we’ve expanded eligibility, obviously counties haven’t had as much use because not as many families were eligible, so they’re in this bind where they’re not getting enough money,” she said.

While it has largely been billed as a city issue, Pete Nabozny, director of policy at the Children’s Agenda, has spent the past few weeks sounding the alarm that if there isn’t significant course correction, the problem upstate will likely spread to more counties.

It’s a scenario that he argues a $50 million Bandaid won’t fix, while stressing that the funding is a crucial step and expanding enrollment is ultimately a positive.

“It’s difficult to see how $50 million for the entirety of upstate outside of New York City is going to be enough to ensure that every family who is eligible for and qualifies for child care assistance is going to be able to receive it,” he said.

While stopping short of assigning blame, he pointed out that Hochul’s executive budget proposal provided flat funding, a situation that he stressed needs to be avoided next year.

“That was surprising because we’ve seen enrollment just grow every month,” he said. “While I think the level of need, especially in New York City, was surprising — this was foreseeable and it does set us up for some further work next year to increase funding again to be able to meet the demand.”

As budget conversations persist despite Hochul’s announcement of a top-line deal, Clark said a $500 million state Senate pitch to fund the state work force appears to be out of the picture.

Instead, Hochul’s proposal for a panel to study funding streams for universal child care will likely get the green light as lawmakers step in to rescue the voucher program.

“It is hard though, as someone who has been fighting for truly fixing the child care issues that we face that work force continues to keep slipping off as the thing that we push down the road, but is the most critical thing that we need to fix,” she said.

Clark said that panel would aim to wrap up work by the fall in order to inform decisions made in next year’s budget process.