Who’s In Hochul’s Mystery Universal Child Care Coalition?

As Governor Kathy Hochul publicly touts her support for universal child care, her office told New York Focus that it has privately convened a coalition to help find a way to pay for it. That comes as news to many of the lawmakers, unions, advocacy organizations, and provider groups most active on the issue.

In January, Hochul proposed creating a coalition to “identify a responsible and sustainable path” to fund universal child care. The state budget passed in May allocated $1 million to set up the group, which the governor said would include fiscal experts and business, labor, and child care provider representatives. Legislators hoped its work would inform Hochul’s next budget proposal.

Four legislators who sponsor child care bills and numerous child care advocacy groups told New York Focus they were under the impression that the coalition had not yet been formed.

“Has this coalition even met yet? Have we identified who is on it? Those kinds of things I would love to know,” said Assemblymember Sarah Clark of Rochester, who sponsors a bill to fund child care with a payroll tax on employers.

The coalition is “a bit of a mystery,” said Pete Nabozny, director of policy at the Children’s Agenda, a Rochester-based advocacy group. When advocates asked the governor’s office over the summer about what was happening with the group, he said, the response they got was, “have you seen what’s going on with the federal government? We’re figuring out this other stuff.”

Hochul’s office said that members of the coalition have held meetings. A spokesperson declined to say who they are or when they have met, but said the office would share more in advance of the governor’s State of the State address in January.

“We are continuing to collaborate with partners inside and outside of government to create a plan of action for universally affordable child care statewide,” said Hochul spokesperson Nicolette Simmonds.

As she looks to next year’s gubernatorial election, Hochul has made child care one of her top issues. She calls herself the state’s “first mom governor” and “a poster child for the child care crisis,” often describing how she had to quit her job to take care of her first child.

It’s not all talk: She has dramatically increased the state’s investment in child care subsidies for low and middle-income parents. 

Still, counties across the state have recently had to turn eligible parents away from that program due to a lack of funding. Hochul has also rejected proposals by the legislature to increase child care spending, including to create a child care workforce fund and expand universal pre-K.

She’s facing calls to do more, as some other Democratic leaders take bolder steps. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced plans to establish universal free child care last month. New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is campaigning to do the same, naming the issue his top priority in last week’s debate.

Standing by Mamdani at an event last week, Hochul doubled down on her support for universal child care.

“I’ve had conversations with Assemblymember Mamdani about how we can get to universal child care,” Hochul said. “I believe we can. I believe we have to have the will to do this.”

But she’s been thin on the specifics.

Instead, during state budget negotiations this year, she proposed setting up the so-called “New York Coalition on Child Care” to find a way to pay for the program.

Legislators tried to spell out the details of the coalition — like who would be in it and when its deadline to form ideas would be — but were rebuffed.

“We tried very hard to put some teeth into this coalition to ensure that we would have something to work with before this year’s budget,” Clark said, but “the governor really wanted this to be her coalition and not have any extra layers of structure put on it from the legislature. So we put it in her hands.”

None of the coalition’s $1 million appropriation has been spent, a Division of the Budget spokesperson told New York Focus, despite the governor’s office’s claim that it has been meeting. The advisory body does not appear to be covered by the state transparency law that would require its meetings to be open to the public.

The governor’s budget briefing materials said the group would be a “partnership between businesses, unions, tax and revenue experts, and child care providers.”

Two of the state’s largest labor unions, the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) and 1199SEIU, told New York Focus they have not been invited to join the group. CSEA represents government workers as well as child care providers, and 1199SEIU is the state’s largest health care worker union. Both unions have advocated for more child care investment.

Two groups that represent child care providers, the Day Care Council and ECE On The Move, said they had not been invited to join the group either and were unaware it had been convened.

Hochul is likely to face significant pressure to invest more in child care in next year’s budget — especially if Mamdani wins November’s mayoral election, as appears likely.

Mamdani supports funding universal child care with higher taxes on the wealthy, as do some unions and advocacy groups. That would require action from Albany, and Hochul has said she won’t agree to an income tax hike. 

Hochul has not proposed a revenue source of her own. That is apparently the task of her new coalition.

But some have characterized the group as a delay tactic.

“There already was a task force,” said state Senator Jabari Brisport, who sponsors universal child care legislation, referring to a task force created by the state in 2018, which published two reports laying out a “roadmap” for universal child care and proposing pilots around the state. 

The new group “is a waste of time, but I guess if the coalition has been meeting, we’ll see what recommendations they have,” Brisport said.

The governor is “saying really great things” about universal child care, said Rebecca Bailin, executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, a parent-led group advocating for universal child care. “But what we will have to see is what her plan is this upcoming budget cycle.”