The parent contribution to county subsidized day care will increase seven percent for Westchester families above the poverty line on Feb. 1.
Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino hailed the increase, approved as part of the 2013 county budget, as a compromise in a press release Tuesday. The county executive's original budget called to increase the minimum contribution from 20 to 35 percent because the program ran out of money in 2012. A coalition of seven Republicans in two Democrats agreed to split the difference at 27 percent when they approved the budget in December.
“The issue was never the county’s commitment to day care but figuring out a way to keep the program solvent,” said Astorino. “Last year, the Democratic majority did not put enough money in the budget to cover costs and the program had a $3 million deficit by the end of the year."
But other Democratic lawmakers deny the day care program lost money in 2012. In a separate release, Democrats claimed the program ran at a $1.3 million surplus in 2012, and that the increase in family contributions wasn't necessary.
Legislator Alfreda Williams (D-Greenburgh) was one of the Democrats who questioned the rate increase during a meeting of the BOL Community Services Committee Tuesday.
“The entire reason for raising the family share for this program, according to the administration, was to keep it solvent, but last year the funding ran a surplus—even at a twenty percent family share,” Williams said, according to a press release. “With this in mind, I can’t be confident about the financial rationale for increasing these costs for working families this year.”
The seven percent increase will only be taken from the percent a family makes over the federal poverty level. Astorino said a family of three making $25,389 per-year will see its contribution increase from $24.33 to $32.71. The rate is paid only once, regardless of how many children are placed in a day care program.
Astorino said that the county will remain below the state maximum of 35 percent, which is the amount charged in 19 New York counties as well as New York City.
But Democrats questioned why the county executive would increase contributions to a program they say has run at a surplus in each of the last two years.
“To trivialize or minimize the impact of these cost increases to poor working parents signals ignorance of the financial stress under which they live,” Williams said. “A few hundred dollars more out of their pockets represents a good percentage of their weekly take home income, and that will cause many parents to search for less safe alternatives.”
Astorino said parents will be notified of the increase this week before the rate increase goes into effect at the end of the month.
get your facts correct before you call someone a liar..i never disrespected you not one time all i did was voice my opinion... All Special education teachers have a masters Degree and more such as ABA specialist Which is a program for kids with Autism Ot Speech and so on... What you must mean is a Teachers Aid called TA's for short which do not require anything more then a high school Diploma.... It is Ny State and most other states Law that require master Degrees and other Degrees for Special Education..most classes range for 8 students 1 teacher with masters and 2 aids.. or 12 students 4 aids and 1 teacher with a masters degree.... What is it do you have problem with special needs kids to make such a nasty coment like that..regarding speical Ed . maybe one day you will have a child with special needs.. or your grand children so that you can understand what a cruel coment that was..
And BTW, I taught music, which reaches the soul of the students that come into our schools. I had both gifted, special ed students and everyone in between in my music groups. ALL of them can achieve amazing things when taught with a dose of patience and humanity. Some on here must have missed those qualities in their own schooling.
A neighbor loves dogs. Has 2 beautiful dogs. She would like more dogs, but can not afford another. Wise woman. She won't adopt a third dog. If someone can not afford a second or third child then DON'T GET PREGNANT. And it's unfair that someone expects someone else to pay your child's way. Why should the woman who wants another dog and can not afford it have to pay for a child that belongs to another person? I feel it's okay for govt to help people when they need 'emergency' help. On a SHORT TERM basis. Not for something long term like raising a child.
No hands out here!
Unfortunately, governmental programs, with good intentions, and wonderful sounding purposes, often lessen the work ethic, creating a mentality that the government owes it to me. Yes, we do pay into many social programs (SS and Medicare) but we tend to get more than we put in, hence the need to rescue these programs on a fairly frequent basis. For those who say social security is fine, remember we have had to raise the SS % and earnings threshold constantly since it was created. Those constant changes indicate the program was, from a financial solvency point of view, poorly designed from the start.
This is all put on the state in the long run anyway.. what i mean is the chid care goes up right ok so now they pay more for childcare..They report that to foodstamps, that there childcare goes up and then there foodstamps is increased.. because its all by income same thing if rent where to go up...
Imagine if I said" I am sure today may be Monday". That is the equivalent of what you said. You are SURE that something MAY be etc... that is a contradiction in terms.