When working families with small children can鈥檛 find acceptable child care options, it can become a crisis that impacts household income, the kids鈥 stability and other fundamental family issues. That鈥檚 why state legislation to expand Missouri鈥檚 child care landscape with state tax credits has garnered strong bipartisan support over the past two years.
That those bills have so far failed to win passage, despite their widespread support and obvious value, is a testament to the political dysfunction that plagues Jefferson City these days.
With proponents poised to make another run at this important issue in the legislative session that starts next month, lawmakers have a chance to finally get it right. For the sake of those working families that all politicians claim to revere, they must not drop the ball again.
Child care affordability is a daunting issue in itself, but just as daunting is the fact that Missouri is rife with regions where there simply isn鈥檛 enough child care available 鈥 at any price 鈥 for the local population.
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These child care 鈥渄eserts鈥 encompass almost half of all Missouri kids 5 years old or younger 鈥 more than 200,000 children in all 鈥 according to an by the Missouri Independent and the advocacy group Child Care Aware. Some regions have more than 20 children for every licensed child care position available. The crisis is generally most acute in rural areas.
Bipartisan state legislation to address the issue has focused on solutions that, one would think, are comfortably in line with even the most conservative politics within the General Assembly鈥檚 Republican supermajority: tax credits designed to help child care providers expand and flourish, as well as incentives to help employers augment that care and to incentivize donations to providers. Indeed, such measures have had the support of Republican lawmakers and Republican Gov. Mike Parson as well as Democrats.
Yet they failed to pass in each of the past two legislative sessions, due primarily to Senate gridlock caused by ideological sparring between mainstream GOP leadership and a few hard-right Republicans. One of them, Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, derided last year鈥檚 effort as 鈥渨elfare鈥 and suggested a preferable solution was for mothers to just stay home with their kids.
Here in the 21st century, the solution on offer isn鈥檛 鈥渨elfare鈥 but tax incentives designed to make it easier for child care providers to function and expand.
New legislation filed by state Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph, would let child care providers claim tax credits for up to 30% of their capital expenditures on things like expansion and renovation. It would let employers claim tax credits for a portion of expenses incurred in helping their employees secure child care. And it would let other taxpayers claim up to 75% of contributions they make to child care providers.
It all adds up to a tweaking of the state tax code to benefit those who would benefit working families by helping make more child care options available 鈥 which will, by definition, make them more affordable.
As Shields recently told the , 鈥淭he crisis in child care hasn鈥檛 gotten any better鈥 as her legislative colleagues have failed this basic test of responsibility to families: 鈥淚n fact, it鈥檚 gotten worse.鈥
Incoming Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe has called child care expansion 鈥渁 personal issue鈥 to him, based on having been raised by a single mother in North 最新杏吧原创: 鈥淚 can tell you first hand,鈥 Kehoe , 鈥渨hat it means when a mom has to decide whether to stay home and not make enough money to buy groceries or go to the store and leave her child at home.鈥
No family in Missouri should have to make that choice. A reasonable solution awaits Kehoe and his party when they take their oaths next month.
