Increasingly, these New Yorkers are taking their families elsewhere. A recent report found the people leaving New York the fastest are families making between $32,000 and $65,000. Middle-class families aren’t far behind. Those who stay are finding it harder to get by. Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester have among the highest child poverty rates in the country. In New York City, one in four children is growing up in poverty, a number that ballooned after Congress let the pandemic-era child tax credit expire.

These New Yorkers are essential workers that form the backbone of our communities. Many want to pursue their dream of starting a family, but simply can’t afford to do it here.

You shouldn’t have to be a millionaire to be able to raise kids in New York. That’s why we crafted the Working Families Tax Credit to help working parents make ends meet, and why we’re pushing the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul to include it in this year’s budget.

The version of the policy already supported by the State Senate would provide a $550 credit per child to single parents making under $75,000 and married couples making $130,000. Families with higher salaries would benefit too, receiving a credit that’s $20 lower for each $1,000 of additional income.

That extra money would give families support for essentials like groceries, clothes and rent. We can go even further by passing the full version of the proposal, which would raise the maximum credit to $1,600 per child, pin it to inflation, and close loopholes like including 17-year-olds.

The policy also fixes issues with existing tax credits, like the regressive phase-ins of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Empire State Child Tax Credit, or the fact that the Earned Income Tax Credit is based on the absurdly low federal minimum wage of $7.25. Consolidating existing credits also allows us to provide families with four quarterly payments instead of one lump sum. Simply put: it’s a smarter way to structure tax expenditures the state already pays for.

With the state budget overdue, time is running out to support working families. As parenthood has taught us, raising kids is challenging enough without having to worry about eviction or hunger. By passing the Working Families Tax Credit, New York can help families worry less, so parents can focus on parenting and kids can focus on being kids—and playing with that dinosaur toy.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn represents the 26th Senate District. Pete Nabozny is the Director of Policy at The Children’s Agenda., which advocates for policies that support the health, education and success of children.