Affordability is still on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s mind as she lays out her agenda for 2025. On Tuesday, the governor announced that she plans to push for the establishment of a $110 million construction fund to build or repair child care facilities across New York state.

That plan, coupled with a state program aimed at building up the number of child care workers in New York and a substitute pool to cover when a caregiver is absent from work and a long-term goal of establishing universal child care in New York, is the third “State of the State” priority announced by Hochul this year ahead of the 2025 legislative session in Albany.

Child care is often cited as a major barrier for parents looking to reenter the workforce. There are not enough facilities or caregivers to take care of every child in New York, and many programs are exorbitantly expensive.

The average cost for infant daycare at a childcare center costs $21,864 annually according to the state labor department, 115% higher than SUNY tuition for a year. A state task force report found that there are 3.4 children under age 6 for every child care slot available in New York.

“As a young mom, I had to leave a job I loved because we couldn’t find child care,” Hochul said in a statement announcing the priority. “I pledged to invest a record-breaking $7 million in child care because I know working families need the help. These new proposals will make a real difference in making child care more affordable and accessible for all New Yorkers.”

Under the terms of her plan, the state would fund a $110 million grant program that will give money to child care providers to build new facilities, or renovate existing ones to expand their capacity. Both nonprofit and for-profit companies can apply for the grants to care for kids both pre-school age and at school age. Hochul said the fund would be split into buckets, one for new construction and another bucket for renovations and expansion projects. Hochul said she will also ask the state Office of Children and Family Services, in the Department of Social Services, to provide technical assistance for groups seeking to apply for grant funding.

Additionally, Hochul said she wants to establish a state-level “substitute pool” of professionals who are licensed and trained to offer childcare, who can stand in when a child care center’s regular staff are sick or unavailable to work.

Hochul said that will reduce the number of child care centers abruptly closing because their staff aren’t able to work, and will also establish a “workforce pipeline” for care providers to find staff as they open new facilities.

Finally, Hochul called for the creation of the New York Coalition for Child Care, a partnership between business, labor, lawmakers and state officials that would be tasked with mapping out a path to establishing universal childcare in New York, accessible to everyone regardless of location, income or employment.

The coalition would also be tasked with a more short-term goal of expanding child care access from its current levels, with a focus on expanding access for middle-class families that don’t qualify for government assistance or government child care programs.

Hochul’s proposals build on the work of the state Child Care Availability Task Force, which was called together in 2018 and expired in December of 2024 after a reauthorization bill passed. The task force’s report in April urged state lawmakers to quickly pass a funding bill for the child care workforce, to cut down on the high rate of attrition from the child care field in New York.

The state’s child care workers make among the lowest annual incomes for child care workers in the U.S., with an average wage in 2022 of $35,190 a year.

The task force report also suggested that lawmakers allow child care providers to use workforce stabilization grants to cover some operating costs, and end the exemption for some legally licensed child care providers that keeps some providers from receiving state grants to pay their workers.

On Monday, the task force delivered its final report to lawmakers, laying out a list of short, medium and long-term steps that they suggest lawmakers take to make child care more affordable, easier and more lucrative to work for and more available to all regions and income levels of New Yorkers.

Their final suggestions include creating a statewide tracking system for all child care facilities, a statewide information clearinghouse for providers to find funding and employment resources, remove barriers to employment and close bureaucratic loopholes that make it harder to get registered as a child care provider or move between jobs in the child care industry, and support new businesses entering the child care space.

Hochul has already taken steps aimed at making child care more affordable for New Yorkers, including moving last year to expand the prenatal leave law and expanding state assistance to cover child care costs.

Hochul’s child care proposals is a part of her 2025 “State of the State,” an agenda-setting address the governor gives annually at the start of the legislative session in Albany. This proposal, like many other priorities the governor outlines each year, will require legislative approval and will likely be included in discussions for the state budget, which is due in April.

Hochul will deliver her full “State of the State” address in Albany on Tuesday.