Investing in New York’s Future: The Long-Term Benefits of Child Poverty Reduction Policies

The Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council (CPRAC) was established in 2021 to propose policies that reduce child poverty in New York State by half over a ten-year period. In 2024, CPRAC recommended three policy packages that would strengthen state antipoverty policy, either through expansions to current policies or the establishment of new ones. Within CPRAC’s policy packages are various combinations of: (a) expansions to the Empire State Child Credit—the state’s version of the federal Child Tax Credit; (b) increases in Public Assistance benefit levels; (c) the establishment of a state food benefit; and (d) establishment of a state housing voucher program. These policy packages are projected to have a substantial effect on child poverty, with the first policy package estimated to meet CPRAC’s goal of cutting child poverty in half. In this report, we seek to understand the long-run benefits and costs of these policy packages.

Key Findings

• The lifetime benefits of implementing these policy packages are roughly ten times greater than the fiscal costs. The greatest net economic benefits to society are derived from Policy Package 1, at an estimated $94.1 billion (compared to $8.9 billion in fiscal costs).
   
• Package 3 generates $86.3 billion in net economic benefits to society compared to $8.5 billion in fiscal costs and Package 2 generates $65.3 billion in net benefits compared to $6.6 billion in fiscal costs.
   
• The largest, long-term benefits derive from improvements to children’s lifetime health and longevity—$56.1 billion for Package 1 and increases in children’s lifetime earnings—$22.3 billion for Package 1.
   
• Taxpayers also experience long term gains—predominantly via reductions in criminal justice expenditures, reduced victim costs of crime, and increased future tax payments from children. The net gains to taxpayers from Policy Package 1, 2 and 3 are respectively $5.1 billion, $2.6 billion and $4.3 billion.

Additionally, our benefit-cost analysis extends these estimates beyond one year of program implementation, aiming to understand the impact of these policy packages if their implementation was not temporary. Specifically, we estimate the long-term benefits and costs of 80 years of continued program implementation, finding that 80 years of continued program implementation could generate roughly $2 trillion in net societal benefits, with exact estimates varying per policy package. Our benefit-cost analysis thus demonstrates the various ways that CPRAC’s recommendations can impact New Yorkers, not just today but well into the future.

Suggested Citation:

Garfinkel, Irwin, Elizabeth Ananat, Sophie Collyer, Robert Hartley, Anastasia Koutavas, Buyi Wang, and Christopher Wimer. 2025. Investing in New York’s future: The long-term benefits of child poverty reduction policies. New York: Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.

Published on April 1, 2025