By Cayla Bamberger

May 9, 2025

The Adams administration’s improbable hope that New York state would allocate more funding for child care vouchers was dashed Friday as Gov. Hochul signed the budget into law — leaving the essential program in limbo.

City Hall had been counting on the state to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure parents did not lose access to care through the initiative, known as the Child Care Assistance Program. But Hochul announced a budget deal with the Legislature last month that included just $350 million to help avert a looming fiscal shortfall much larger than that, forcing New York City to match their investment to receive the dollars.

A rep for Mayor Adams said the administration is still evaluating what the state plan means for the municipal budget.

Rather than allocate the funding in his budget proposal last week, Mayor Adams said he was going to fight for further investments until the ink on the bills in Albany were dry. Meanwhile, the city closed the program to new applicants who are not required by law to receive the subsidy.

“We typically get a few thousand applications for child care each month, and so, that waitlist could include all of those children for the time being,” Jess Dannhauser, the commissioner of the city’s Administration of Children’s services, which dispenses the vouchers, revealed this week to reporters.

Under the terms of the agreement outlined in two state budget bills, New York City would have to spend at least $328 million to qualify for the matching funds.

Any remaining dollars would be available to other cities and towns, which have an additional $50 million earmarked for them. The match only applies to New York City, according to a source close to negotiations between the city and state.

The municipal budget is still being negotiated with the City Council, whose leaders previously expressed dismay over cutbacks to the program. Whether the issue becomes a sticking point in city budget negotiations remains to be seen.

“The partial funding commitment from the state towards maintaining access to child care vouchers is a necessary step, and the Council will focus on city budget funding to ensure child care access is preserved for our city’s working families,” said Rendy Desamours, a Council spokesperson.

The governor’s office has stood firm that the status quo was “unsustainable,” and in order to provide families with affordable child care, the costs had to be a “shared responsibility” between the city and state.

“This budget is about you and your parents,” Hochul told dozens of children in Broome County as she signed the budget bills. “And when I proposed my budget back in January, I said, ‘Your family is my fight.’ And I wanted to make sure I could fight for your moms and dads to have more money back in their pockets.”

At issue is that funding for subsidized child care has not kept pace with the exponential growth in assistance.

In the years following the pandemic, ACS rapidly expanded vouchers for families who qualified by income — growing from 7,400 to 69,000 children between 2022 and today. The subsidy is available to families making under 85% of the state median income, and covers on average $300 of their weekly child care costs.

But with more families on public assistance going back to work, and reimbursement costs rising, the city is expecting a funding cliff that could kick tens of thousands of families off vouchers at their annual recertification. Prior estimates suggest the program may need up to $900 million over the next fiscal year to make it whole.

“The city has an opportunity right now to draw down hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds to ensure tens of thousands of families can get the child care assistance they need, and I’m certainly hopeful they’ll make the choice to do that,” said Pete Nabozny, a policy director at The Children’s Agenda.

“But I do recognize this is a really significant increase in spending that’s being placed upon the city, so I think its going to take a little bit of time for the mayor, ACS, and the City Council to process how this is going to work,” he added. “Whether it ends up being enough money to get through the year end is still an open question.”

Original article here: https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/05/09/adams-bid-for-extra-state-cash-falls-short-putting-key-child-care-subsidy-program-at-risk/