Albany, NY—Today, the New York State Senate and Assembly submitted their one-house budget resolutions. Both houses included the Working Families Tax Credit, in full, including proposals for investments totaling $75 million for legal services. However, neither One House budgets included further investments in the Language Access Act.
Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO, New York Immigration Coalition:
“We thank Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins’ and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie’s for their continued support of our communities, but urge them to go further by increasing investments at this time of unrelenting federal attacks on immigrant New Yorkers. These attacks will devastate our families and entire communities, while destabilizing New York’s economy.
“We are thrilled to see that the Working Families Tax Credit legislation is included in both the New York State Assembly and Senate one-house budgets. The Working Families Tax Credit would raise the maximum credit to $1,600 per child, guarantee a $100 minimum credit per child, and eliminate the cap on the number of eligible kids, going further than Governor Hochul’s current proposal. This is a huge step forward to lifting thousands of children out of poverty and ensuring the health of our working families across the state. We urge the Governor to work with the Senate and Assembly to enshrine the Working Families Tax Credit legislation into law during this affordability crisis.
“The $75 million investment in legal services funding included in both one-house budgets via the Office of New Americans is an important step forward to meet the needs of immigrant New Yorkers. However, the funding falls short of the $165 million necessary to put people on the path to legal status and work authorizations, not to mention to provide the deportation defense necessary to keep families together when the Trump administration is laser focused on deporting immigrant New Yorkers. New York communities and economies are stronger when our families and workforce remain stable and thriving.
“We are disappointed to see that neither one-house budgets included any additional funding for the expansion of the Language Access Act. We continue to hope that the legislature reconsiders investing an additional $10 million to ensure New Yorkers across all demographics are no longer denied access to vital information and government services to support their inclusion and integration into daily life in New York State.
“As the federal government escalates its assault on our state, New York can do more to protect its workforce and support immigrant New Yorkers struggling to receive vital legal services, pay their bills, get the essential language support they need to participate in civic life and more. We look forward to working with both Houses to advance all our priorities in the coming weeks. Investing in our immigrant communities is an investment in the continued success of New York State’s economy.”