B-roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Highlights Child Care Expansion Pilot Partnership With Broome County as Part of Statewide Investments in[...]

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul visited a child care center at the B.C. Center to highlight the State's proposal to partner with Broome County, Dutchess County and Monroe County in a new state pilot program to support counties expanding child care access in their communities for children aged zero to three. This is all part of the Governor's $4.5 billion investment to deliver statewide universal child care and make New York State the best and most affordable place to raise a family. This pilot program includes an investment of $60 million in State funding, along with new investments from each of the three counties. The Governor also met with students currently enrolled in SUNY's Reconnect Program at SUNY Broome whose children are enrolled in the childcare program on campus.

B-ROLL: Of the Governor greeting children is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264.mp4)

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264,mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr has photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Good to see everybody. My best days are the ones that start off with playing with children, and that's exactly what I had the privilege to do here at Broome Community College at their childcare center, which is just an extraordinary place. You can sense the love and the sense of responsibility that these individuals who work here every single day to take care of children and how seriously they take this.

And I want to thank some of my partners here in our operations. We have our - I'm missing a card here, you may have taken my card.

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I want to make sure I don't miss anybody. Our County Executive Jason Garnar, I want to thank him for joining us and being here every time I come to Broome County and make sure that we're focused on issues that are important to the county.

Dr. Tony Hawkins, the president of Broome Community College. I am very proud of how the enrollment has gone up dramatically since we instituted the SUNY reconnect - which is an opportunity for adults 25 years and older in specialized fields like education and health care, and a whole series of [courses] and can come back to community college for free and covering all the costs.

And so the numbers went up about 16 percent from fall and maybe up 20 percent for the spring. So we're doing well, right, I just want to confirm it's working. We're excited about this as well. Our extraordinary Chancellor John King, who is just the brainchild of so many of these initiatives that help high school students have a better chance of getting financial aid and coming to college and opportunities for them and scholarships and investing in our infrastructure at all of our SUNY campuses. Also he cares deeply about allowing people the opportunity to get that education, to lift themselves out of their circumstances. And that SUNY Reconnect and our investments in the childcare facilities are an important part of that. And Nicole McMillan the director of this center is also to some we really are grateful for all the work you do here.

As I mentioned, I met some of the kids here. I met some of their parents, and the parents are pursuing a SUNY education. So in speaking to them, they're just so grateful not just to have the financial support to cover the cost of tuition - but when they're trying to better themselves and get more of an opportunity and have a better job with a better paycheck to take care of a child. But they spend so much of that paycheck on that child when they're able to bring them here to a place like this, literally where they're going to school. It makes all the difference in the world, and it's really life changing is what I'm hearing.

And they can check in on their kids, something I know is important as a mom. New York's first mom-Governor, knowing that you know you're consumed every day even if you're working thinking about the wellbeing of your child. If you can check in on them, it's just a great opportunity for them to do both their jobs - be a full-time student but also a full-time parent.

I know this personally because I've had to give up a career that I love because I could not find childcare that was affordable when my babies were starting out. Now those babies are having their own babies since it was a long time ago, but they're struggling with childcare as well. So I know this is a huge driver of cost for their families. And also, we want to talk about something that we're leaning hard into and I'm really proud of this. Talking about [getting] on a path for fully universal childcare across the entire State of New York. We made a major announcement with the Mayor of New York City a few weeks ago - just a few weeks ago really into this session. But recognizing that New York City and the rest of the State are in different places.

New York City started quite a bit earlier to have a four-year-old program and a three-year-old program. We have some of our communities covered in New York, but I want to make sure we fully get there. But you think about what it costs to have childcare here in Broome County the median income is about $61,000 a year. One of the lower incomes across our State, and the cost of childcare is upwards of $14,000. So if you have to take care of a child or even two children at that cost, look at what you're subtracting out of your income right off the bat, and it's impossible for families.

That cost is twice the cost of a SUNY tuition. So it's just a huge driver of expense and creates the affordability challenge for so many of our families. So that's why I know that we needed to make investments in childcare here in New York. Over $8 billion since I've been Governor that has been invested in childcare. Focusing 6.5 billion on childcare subsidies to help parents have what they need to be able to make the payments to cover their childcare. We can do that but also we can provide it - but also you have to have facilities. So places like this take money to build and to develop and take time.

So last year in our budget, we announced over $100 million to open hundreds of new childcare centers. So we really did lay the foundation, working on the facilities, the workforce that's required. And now we need to be able to expand it to more and more families. So as I talk about upstate, I want to do things in a way we can study the impacts and look at three specific counties that I've identified, and are proud to announce in cooperation with our County Executive, Broome County is one of the three pilots for this initiative all across upstate New York.

And so Broome County's on the verge of opening the largest childcare center this fall. It's going to be amazing and to continue furthering these efforts, we are committed at the state level to $20 million for the county to scale up and find out ways we can deal with babies that are infants all the way up to three-year-olds - and cover that gap for families that exist. We'll work on getting the four-year-old program available to every child within the next two years, that should be done - also focusing on three-year-old programs. But it's those infants, the little toddlers and the one and two-year-olds that are the ones that are hard to place. So we want to have a pilot for a community-wide network of daycares that'll provide daycare not just during a school year, but year round and also make it affordable for families. Also double down on the proven success of the childcare subsidies. $1.2 billion already additional for childcare subsidies.

And as I mentioned, we'll follow through on our promise of a universal four-year-old program. So in the next two years, every parent will know that there's a seat guaranteed for their four-year-old to be able to have the education they need, the skills and training to be able to step into kindergarten ready to learn.

So we're going to keep giving relief to families knowing of their struggles. We have the expansion of the childcare tax credit. When I first became Governor, for families with a child under the age of four, there was no tax credit, there was no financial assistance. So we went from $330 the next year and I said let's just triple it - let's get it up to $1000. And that's I want to get the word out that you can deduct that on your - you can take that credit on this year's taxes for your children under the age of four. We also have a baby benefit, $1,800 for parents receiving public assistance to help them with those initial costs which are always so high when your family's just starting out. As well as an investment of $9 million to help with diapers and other supplies that families need.

So my objective is to make it possible for people to get an education at a great institution like SUNY Broome. Knowing that their children are well taken care of, find other ways to put more money back in their pockets. We're taking on the high cost of car insurance and utilities - I know is hugely important here in Broome County and the Southern Tier. This bitter cold winter is commanding more use, which is driving up costs and we're still in the depths of that deep freeze and it's going to take some more time to get out of it. But again, expanding the SUNY Reconnect program is something I feel very excited about.

So the bottom line is this, we're never going to stop fighting for the families - some little ones I can hear in the distance who are screaming a little bit. But that shows that they're active, they're alive, they're engaged. And I'm delighted to be here to make this major announcement for Broome County that will be working closely to be part of a pilot to unveil a statewide program to make sure that every child, every family will have access to affordable childcare.

Contact the Governor's Press Office