“The community is tremendously thankful to Mayor de Blasio
for base lining an additional 12.6 million dollars to fund Priority 5 vouchers
for working parents, bringing crucial assistance to so many poor, hard-working
families and their children city-wide. Base lining will give these families the
peace of mind and security that they will be able to continue benefitting from
it on a steady basis, so that they can look and find permanent work,” said
Rabbi David Niederman.
Mayor de Blasio was always a strong proponent of extending
child care services for working families, and from day one as mayor he was
committed to reopen this important assistance to additional eligible children.
Last year, the City Council, under the leadership of Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
included 12.6 million dollars for additional vouchers. It followed the strong
advocacy of Councilman Stephen Levin, Chair of the General Welfare Committee, who
was joined by many of his colleagues who called the city to restart issuing new
Priority 5 vouchers – discontinued by the Bloomberg Administration. The funding was enabled through the support of
the Mayor. Today’s announcement by the mayor, that it will be base lined in the
routine budget, as requested by the City Council, goes a long way in making
this restoration permanent.
“We thank Speaker Mark-Viverito, Councilman Levin, and Mr.
Avi Fink, for their hard work to expand child care services to all New Yorkers.
Today’s decision is another step forward in the Mayor’s hard work to uplift all
New Yorkers. We are grateful for that,” said Rabbi Niederman.
