Hochul signs Bronson’s Child Poverty Reduction Act into law

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed a bill by a local assemblyman into law.

The Child Poverty Reduction Act aims to cut poverty in half in 10 years, providing the tools necessary to make it happen.

Assemblyman Harry Bronson (D, 138) sponsored the bill in the Assembly.

He said he knows what it’s like to deal with poverty, having grown up in a family of 12 in a rural town.

"It’s the first time it’s been tried in the U.S. and it recognizes that throughout the state, one and five children live in poverty… here in the city of Rochester, one in two children live in poverty,” Bronson said. “We have to take this on and this is saying, it’s making a commitment, the state is now making the commitment that we are going to do whatever it takes and we are going to develop policies so that our children will move from poverty to a place of opportunity."

The act received widespread, bipartisan support across New York.

It establishes the child poverty reduction advisory council to develop a strategic plan to combat the issue.