Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) continues to make her case for legislation that would help ease the burden of child care costs, which the senator says add up to $10,000 a year per child for the average central New York family.
At a day care center in East Syracuse Friday, the Democrat calmed an infant before explaining her proposal to use tax breaks to make child care more affordable. The three-pronged plan takes into account different income levels.
“So for lowest wage families, it’s a tax credit. So you actually get that money back, and we’ve doubled the size of the tax credit,” said Gillibrand. “If you’re a middle class family, it’s a tax deduction. And you can take up to $14,000 for two kids for a deduction for childcare costs, which go a long way. So if you two kids and it’s 20K and you can deduct $14,000, that’s going to help you. And the third is flex spending accounts.”
Gillibrand has proposed tax breaks like this before. She’s optimistic that there will be progress this time around, noting she has bipartisan support in the Republican-led Senate.
“That’s really meaningful to have republican leadership now,” said Gillibrand. “And hopefully, Congress got the message that the American people want them to get things done. So hopefully, this common sense measure that everyone would benefit from, would be one of the highest priorities for this Congress.”
New York state has been ranked the least affordable state for child care.
