The keys to expanding the tax credit to infants and toddlers were collaboration, community organizing and persistence.
Together with our partners, especially the Schuyler Center for Advocacy & Analysis, we worked to understand how the tax code operated and why it excluded children under age four. This involved lots of conversations with state administrators and legislators, many of whom didn't know about the exclusion.
There were numerous bills introduced over the years to fix the problem, but the status quo continued. In 2020 there was finally a budget proposal to partially fill the gap, but then the pandemic happened and everything in state government shifted to the public health emergency.
In this case the pandemic also brought an opportunity because of the wildly popular (albeit temporary) expansion of the federal child tax credit. That raised awareness of how much impact these credits can have for children.
You -- our supporters and members of our Action Network -- solidified the public support when you sent letters to your representatives in Albany, calling for this common sense solution to be enacted.
This year with Assemblymember Harry Bronson and Senator Jeremy Cooney championing bills, we were able to overcome the long-standing inertia in Albany. Bolstered by last year's passage of the Child Poverty Reduction Act, expansion of the Empire State Credit to children of all ages got into the state budget!
This journey is typical of the work we do -- kids are counting on us to persist. So many of the victories for kids take years to win. By working together and never giving up, we get there.
