CHENANGO COUNTY – With the rising cost of child care across New York, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced a plan to make child care more affordable and accessible for working-class New Yorkers in a press conference call on Tuesday.

At the heart of the proposed legislation is the mounting cost of child care coupled with a lack of available effective, child care facilities.

In 2012, New York State was ranked the second least-affordable in the nation for full-time day care for an infant, according to a report by Child Care Aware, a national independant agency that provides reliable information about quality child care and referrals to community resources.

According to the Child Care Aware study, a two-parent family in New York spent an average of 16.5 percent of their annual income on care for their infant. For a single mother in New York, the cost of care was greater than 57 percent of her income.

In response to the ever-increasing financial squeeze on New York working families, Gillibrand is championing the legislation to address the lack of access to quality, affordable child care.