Dear friend,

Well, this year’s inexcusably late state budget is finally done. But I'll be honest: the budget misses the mark on the issue that matters most to New Yorkers: affordability.

New Yorkers are looking to their leaders for bold action to address the problems facing our state. Instead, this budget represents a gross misalignment of priorities: it nickel-and-dimes programs that families rely on while spending billions on dubious tax breaks and gimmicks that won’t make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

We had a generational opportunity to slash child poverty and grow the middle class by passing my Working Families Tax Credit, a game-changing policy that would’ve given families up to $1,600 per child for essentials like groceries and rent, as recommended by the Governor’s own Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council.

Instead, New Yorkers will get a paltry, one-time ‘rebate check’ for a few hundred dollars and a miniscule tax cut—eventually. And while expanding the child tax credit for young children is better than nothing, the vast majority of families will get a credit that doesn't come close to the rising cost of living that's pushing them to the brink.

While the budget includes some important investments—particularly in the MTA’s capital plan, a limited homelessness prevention voucher program, and a birth grant for some children on public assistance—it falls short in too many other ways.

It fails to meaningfully expand access to free after-school programming, once again leaving Brooklyn families hanging. It doesn't continue the state’s commitment to fully funding statewide universal pre-K. It doesn't meaningfully address housing affordability. And it doesn’t even extend the governor’s community college tuition plan to the SUNY and CUNY colleges, like City Tech and Medgar Evers in Brooklyn, that offer associate degrees in high-demand fields, a small investment that would’ve transformed the lives of countless working-class and first-generation students who most need support.