Assembly Member and Senate District 13 candidate Jessica González-Rojas launched a “New Deal for Families” in Elmhurst Tuesday morning, calling for a statewide commitment to universal childcare for every child from birth to the age of four.
González-Rojas, who currently represents parts of Corona, Astoria, Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst in the 34th Assembly District, launched a “five-point framework” to reshape childcare in New York State.
At an event at A Child’s Place Academy at 75-01 31st Ave., González-Rojas called on the state to guarantee access to childcare like it guarantees access to K-12 education as part of the five-point framework. She also called on the state to increase salaries for childcare workers to match those of public school teachers as well as altering the childcare system to also cater for families who work irregular hours, such as weekend and shift workers.
The framework also called on the state to fund new and expanded childcare facilities in schools, libraries and public housing developments as well as introducing a wealth tax to ensure the wealthiest residents in the state “pay their fair share” and create a permanent childcare trust fund insulated from political swings and budget cuts.
The entire framework would cost around $12 billion, González-Rojas said, but added that the issue is the “moral responsibility” of the state. She said a progressive income tax on the wealthiest residents in the state could raise up to $21 billion to fund the initiative.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has already significantly expanded tax credits to help New York families afford childcare and said in November that the state was “on a path” to universal childcare. Hochul has also pledged to make childcare a top priority in 2026, while universal childcare was a central component of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign last year. Mamdani has pledged to provide free childcare to every child in the city aged between six weeks and five years.
Hochul has estimated that statewide universal childcare would cost around $15 billion annually, while Mamdani has forecasted a cost of $6 billion to fund free childcare in New York City.
González-Rojas, who is running against incumbent State Sen. Jessica Ramos in District 13 in the Democratic Primary in June, described universal childcare as one of the “most powerful investments that New York can make” and said providing guaranteed access to childcare would uplift “entire communities.”
“Every day in New York, we know that parents make impossible choices,” González-Rojas said at Tuesday’s event. “Do they have to stay home with their child and lose income, or lose a job? Do they have to patch together care that’s expensive, that’s unreliable or that’s far from home?”
She said many parents are forced to leave the workforce altogether in order to care for their children, which she described as a policy failure by the state.
“Childcare is essential infrastructure, just as vital to our economy as our roads, our schools and our transit systems,” González-Rojas said. “Yet, New York treats it like a luxury instead of a public good. The result is a system that’s unaffordable for families and unstable for providers.”
González-Rojas added that the state has a “moral imperative” to provide career paths for childcare workers as well as providing “robust benefits” and a “living wage floor.”
“Childcare workers need to be credentialed just like public school teachers need to be credentialed and yet the pay parity is not there,” she said. “They are deserving of equitable pay and equitable benefits.”
González-Rojas proposed creating a permanent childcare trust fund through a progressive tax on “ultra-high incomes,” luxury real estate transactions and the closure of “outdated corporate tax loopholes” to add $21 billion to the state coffers.
“These dedicated funds will be protected from annual budget cuts and used exclusively for childcare access, workforce pay and capital investment,” González-Rojas said in her five-point framework.
Denice Jeffries-El, educational director at A Child’s Place, described universal childcare as an imperative tool to allow infants and toddlers to thrive in New York City.
“It’s very important that we have universal childcare,” Jeffries-El said. “Our infants and toddlers need care.”
Tammy Rose, owner of the Little Friends School in Sunnyside, said expanding childcare access and increasing pay for childcare workers will allow more families to stay in the city.
“One thing we’re hearing a lot is that our families are leaving because they can’t afford childcare,” Rose said.
Ramos, González-Rojas’s opponent in the June primary, previously introduced the Early Learning Child Care Act in 2021 as part of efforts to expand childcare in New York State. The act, which did not make it out of committee, aimed to implement a 1% tax on the top 5% of earners in New York in order to provide a sliding-scale subsidy for families earning up to $265,000 a year.
Ramos also aimed to create an “earning floor” of $45,000 for childcare providers.
