Every day, social worker Brandy Loveland encounters Western New York families ravaged by the economic effects of Covid-19. They're the kind of people she says "struggle with basic needs."
"That includes paying for the internet to keep their children educated," she said during a Wednesday event at Buffalo's Explore & More Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Children's Museum, headlined by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer.
Schumer touted new and expanded federal tax credits.
During his regular drop-in visits to Buffalo in recent weeks, Schumer has emphasized the new legislation championed by President Biden and the Democratic congressional majority, and Wednesday's event at Explore & More was no exception. Amid the background sounds of children at the waterfront attraction, the senator noted that 85% of Buffalo families will benefit from "a dramatic increase" of more than $77 million in child tax and earned income tax credits from the new legislation.
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"We are one of the cities with most impoverished kids ... but at the same time it helps the middle class," he said of the new program's effects on Western New York. "The same people who got the stimulus checks for $1,400 ... families whose income is below $150,000 and families who are individuals below $75,000, will also get the benefit of both the child tax credits and earned income tax credits.
"For decades we've wanted to try and get our children here in Western New York and across the country out of poverty," he continued. "And for the first time ... half of the children in Western New York will be removed from poverty. By taking these kids out of poverty, it not only helps them and their families, it helps our whole economy."
Schumer, who was joined by Mayor Byron W. Brown, United Way of Buffalo and Erie County President Michael Weiner and others, noted that Buffalo has often ranked second for child poverty among similar sized cities, while communities like Niagara Falls and Jamestown face the same issues. He estimated 107,000 households in Erie and Niagara counties will benefit from the new credit, while helping nearly 66 million children nationwide.
The new benefits, he said, are expected to begin in July.
