JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – With more than 1,100 Missouri daycares closed over a span of two years, voters are being asked if they want to give child care providers a special property tax break.
It’s a problem for families and businesses: a lack of child care providers is causing employees to leave the workforce voluntarily. With 94 of the state’s 114 counties in a child care desert, the hope is that this will be an incentive to open more facilities and give relief to already existing providers.
“This is one of those where we need to fight for kids, fight for families that are really struggling in state of Missouri and this is one really simple way to do that,” Sen. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, said.
It’s a way for lawmakers to know where Missouri voters stand on the child care crisis.
“The number one reason people don’t go to work is because of adequate child care, we don’t have it in the state of Missouri,” Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday.
Amendment 1 on the Aug. 6 primary ballot asks:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to allow places where individuals, corporations, organizations, and associations provide childcare outside of the child’s home to be exempt from property tax? This is intended to make childcare more available, which would support the well-being of children, families, the workforce, and society as a whole.
State governmental entities estimate the state’s Blind Pension Fund could have annual lost revenue of up to $400,000. Local governments expect an unknown fiscal impact.
“We have a child care crisis in the state of Missouri and that requires us to do something that would incentivize child care facilities and this is the easiest way to do it without subsidies,” Fitzwater said. “We’re not trying to give every home in the state that says I babysit one child; we’re a child care facility and we get the property tax exemption. This would only be for the portion of their house they use for child care facilities that are considered child care facilities in the state of Missouri. Not just willy-nilly.”
Fitzwater sponsored the legislation passed last year, but even if approved on Tuesday, there’s still another step for lawmakers to take.
“We still have to have statutory change which we haven’t done yet because we would really like to see if Missourians are supportive of this measure,” Fitzwater said.
Meaning a “yes” vote on Amendment 1 would allow the General Assembly would come back next year and approve the property tax exemption for providers.
Earlier this year, Parson asked lawmakers to pass tax credits to help businesses, families and providers, but the bipartisan legislation fell short for a second year in row.
“Our revenues are up, we have a $1.9 billion excess fund that I’m going to turn over to the next governor,” he said. “You know this is a number one priority; we’ve got the funding, let’s do what we can to help the people of this state that need child care.”
Fitzwater said he’s unsure about approving tax credits for child care; instead, giving property tax relief is easier for providers to achieve.
“With tax credits, I think a lot of them go to people that can have the capability to go get them, so like a large business has general counsels or multiple lawyers on their team and they have people devoted just to go find these incentivizes,” Fitzwater said. “It’s a lot harder for the little guy that doesn’t have a law team on the books, they don’t have someone that’s devoted to grants or tax credits.”
The financial impact of the potential lost taxes on the local government is still unknown. The Missouri Department of Social Services told the auditor’s office that their Blind Pension Fund, which gives money to people who are blind, would lose around $400,000 annually. This undetermined number is why the business community hasn’t officially taken a position on the ballot question.
“However, we do think we need to think about kind of an all-of-the-above approach to addressing our child care crisis and one important facet of that is how do we incentivize more child care providers to enter the market,” Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry Interim President and CEO Kara Corches said.
According to the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the state’s economy is losing out on more than $1.3 billion a year due to a lack of child care.
There were more than two dozen House Republicans that voted against putting the question up to voters last year. House Budget Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, who is currently running for governor, said he opposed the legislation because he said the government should not be picking winners and losers.
“I would prefer wide-ranging property tax reform in Missouri,” Smith said in a statement. “While I acknowledge we need more child care providers in our state, let us not forget that many Missourians, including seniors, struggle with perpetual property taxes. On this issue, we need to help more than just child care providers.”
