Last week, Andrew Gounardes introduced Senate Bill 9610 into the New York State Senate. The basic idea of the bill, which is that New York should consolidate its state-level Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) into a single benefit that includes the poor and is paid out four times a year, is a good one. But the proposed implementation of the idea is a disaster that illustrates everything that is wrong with the means-testing obsession of current policymakers and influencers.

The initial shape of the new Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) starts off simple enough: every family in New York will receive $1,500 per child per year paid out in quarterly installments. Had the policy writers stopped there, the WFTC would be a very straightforward universal child allowance that was easy for parents to sign up for and easy for the state to administer.