In a city where costs are on the rise, parents say raising a family is especially tough.

"Child care can definitely get pretty expensive, but luckily we have family to help out sometimes, but if I didn't have them it would cost a lot of money," said parent of five Daniel McDonald.

That is why City Comptroller Scott Stringer says he is proposing a plan to help cut child care costs for up to 70,000 New Yorkers.

"NYC Under 3" would expand the number of families eligible for publicly supported care.

"Parents are struggling to make ends meet and a lot of times it is a choice between staying in the work force or having childcare and you can't have both and that is just not right," said Scott Stringer.

According to Stringer, the average cost of a spot in a child care center is $21,000 a year, which is more expensive than most in-state college tuition. That’s too high of a price tag for many parents like Lucila Rodriguez.

"There are a lot of parents with money who still can't provide child care because they gotta take their child out of care because they have to pay the rent, their bills, stuff like that," says Rodriguez.

Under the plan, child care costs would be eliminated for families living at or below the poverty line. And out of pocket expenses for families making $100,000 would be no more than 12% of their salary.

"We have to tackle affordability head on. It starts with child care. It starts with kids because without security for children people leave the city," added the comptroller.

To fund the program, state legislation has been drafted calling for a payroll tax on private city companies with payrolls totaling $2.5 million or more.

Those funds would go towards financial assistance as well as building new centers in areas of the city considered child care deserts.

"There are so few options so we literally have to almost start from the beginning and build out a system and facilities so that we can implement a child care program," said the comptroller.

Stringer hopes to have the program up and running at a cost of more than %600 million dollars, all to provide relief to parents who say they need it most.