CM Restler questions OMB on childcare voucher waitlist and SECC vouchers

Thank you, Chair Lee.

Good to see you, Director and team.

And firstly, I just want to commend you all for balancing the executive budget.

It was no easy feat, and I think in particular took

impressive skill in navigating Albany and securing significant

support up there and that didn't happen by accident and you and the first deputy mayor and others deserve a great deal of credit for for accomplishing it.

I'd like to try to cover two topics today.

Child care vouchers first of all.

So we have 25,600 children on a waiting list today who are in desperate need of child care support.

And we have not yet heard any commitment from the administration about whether they will begin to invite children on that waiting list to access child care vouchers.

There are a couple of things that I'd like to just get clarity on and then see if we can get some support today from you on this.

Firstly, there are 31,000 children who are enrolled in mandated HRA vouchers today.

For some years, we've been getting estimates from HRA on when they anticipate reaching the 63,000 threshold, again, of children on mandated vouchers.

First, we heard that it was going to be in January of 2028, then March of 2028.

Most recently, they testified last week that it's not until September of 2028 that we're going to hit that threshold, which means we have significant resources available for the non-mandated voucher population, low-income vouchers that our families need, these families on the waiting list.

Can you identify how much savings we have as a result of the delay in the take-up on the mandated vouchers?

Secondly, it was recently reported that the city has only spent $105 of the extra $350 million that the state has allocated for voucher funds.

This is the maintenance of effort funding where when you spend this money, we get matching dollars from the state.

We need to make sure that it's spent down.

Can you confirm that every...

penny of that $350 million will be spent by September.

And then thirdly, just to keep it simple, what I've been advocating for with some colleagues in the council and child care advocates is that we spend money this year on SECR vouchers,

the special child care funding vouchers that are a one-year commitment instead of an in perpetuity commitment until children age out at age 13.

Can we get

Is OMB open to working with us on a one-year model to use the extra funding that we have, that we've identified and just, you know, happy for you to confirm exists, to expand child care vouchers for this coming fiscal year?

So thank you, Council Member, and thank you for the kind words.

I think that...

So first on vouchers writ large.

So yes, you cite what we were able to accomplish in Albany and the additional funding that we got for the vouchers.

The city tax levy funding that you speak of to meet the maintenance of effort will be met.

We will put up that funding.

And we intend that we will spend the full amount of what is provided by the state and what is provided in city tax levy to

continue to fund vouchers for the eligible population as it exists right now.

Now, you mentioned the wait list.

Of course, the wait list, you know, does exist.

We'd like to get there within the existing funding.

We think that we can cover the existing population.

However,

However, if there should be attrition that happens in the existing population, or should we see that overall state market rates go down,

there may be an opportunity for us to, with existing funding, be able to reach into the way that we're going to go down.

Not sure market rates will go down, but the state has delayed implementation of the increase in the market rate, which is helpful.

And the attrition rates we've seen are steady.

So we know what the resources we have.

We can make the evaluation today.

Can we add families for a one-year voucher commitment instead of an imperfect?

You know, I get that it's a major financial commitment for the city to say we're going to enroll a child in a voucher at age four that they're going to have until they're 13.

But it's less of a commitment to say this year we know we have the money because the mandated take-up is dramatically slower than OMB and HRA and ACS had anticipated.

We have extra resources that we can spend in FY27.

Can we start to offer children on that waiting list, SCCF vouchers, to help connect them to child care for this coming fiscal year?

We're happy to talk to you about your suggestion and look at it in the next few weeks.

All right.

I appreciate that.

I have more, but I think I'm round two.

Round two, yes.

Round two, Chair Lee.

Thank you very much.

Becoming a longer list of round two.

Okay.

Councilmember Brewer, followed by P.

Sanchez.