JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The state’s economy is losing out on more than a billion dollars due to a lack of childcare. 

Of Missouri’s 114 counties, 94 of them are in a childcare desert. It’s a major concern and costing the state money. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce said employees across the state are leaving voluntarily because of the lack of providers or the cost of having someone watch their child. 

Legislation is moving forward in Jefferson City to help families, businesses, and the state. Several business organizations from around Missouri spoke in favor of childcare tax credits during the House Workforce and Infrastructure Development Committee Wednesday. 

“We have found that childcare is not just an issue for working parents to figure out,” Kara Corches, vice president of governmental affairs for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said. “This is really a statewide economic issue.”

According to the chamber, the state’s economy lost out on more than $1.3 billion last year due to a lack of childcare. Corches said the chamber surveyed business leaders across the state this fall and found that 80% recognize that the expense and difficulty of finding childcare is hurting their ability to recruit and retain workers.

While employers struggle to find workers, employees wrestle with finding childcare. 

“All day every day, I get calls from families who can’t find childcare (and) have been on waiting lists for well before they even knew they were pregnant,” Nicci Trapp Rexroat, owner of A Place to Grow in mid-Missouri, told the committee. 

The solution lawmakers are talking about involves incentives for employers, families, and childcare providers. 

“It creates three tax credits programs to fund childcare in our state,” Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph, said. “It is innovated because businesses, government and parents will all participate in the cost of care.”

Shields is sponsoring House Bill 1488. Under the legislation there would be three new tax credits, the “Child care Contribution Tax Credit,” the “Employer Provided Child Care Assistance Tax Credit,” and the “Child Care Providers Tax Credit.”

“Each tax credit is capped at $200,000 per taxpayer,” Shields said. “These tax credits are nonrefundable and nontransferable. This is not government care being run by government. It is local businesses, churches and family homes who will create the child care that they need in their communities.”

The Child Care Contribution Tax Credit allows a donor who contributes to a child care provider to receive a tax credit for up to 75% of their contribution. The money can be used for the improvement of a facility, training and salary boost for staff and to purchase new equipment. 

The Employer Provided Child Care Assistance credit helps employers pay for child care for their employees. Businesses can provide scholarships and offer resources in benefit packages. 

The Child Care Providers Tax Credit allows providers to invest in themselves. Money can be used to update facilities as long as approved by the state’s Office of Childhood. If a provider has at least three employees that work at least 10 hours a week, they are allowed claim a tax credit in an equal amount to the employees’ withholding tax.

“On the Missouri side in Kansas City, there are only enough child care centers to meet 41% of the potential demand of children ages zero through 5,” Nancy Gidden, lobbyist for the City of Kansas City and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, said. “We know that Missouri employees, particularly women, cannot reach their economic potential if in fact their families can’t access child care.”

Similar legislation died in the Senate last year, but there’s a new push this year to get it across the finish line. 

“Lack of child care can be the deciding point of whether or not a pregnant woman, a young family decided whether to continue that pregnancy to term,” Samuel Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, said. 

Trapp Rexroat is a provider in mid Missouri with facilities in New Bloomfield, Holts Summit, and Jefferson City. She said she operates an entire infant and toddler facility that has room for 52 children ages two and under and it’s always full, and yet she still has a waiting list. She told lawmakers she’s losing quality staff. 

“We’re talking about middle class families, with two kids, who are paying $35,000 a year for early childhood,” Trapp Rexroat said. “We can’t raise our rates anymore and our staff are still making well below what they deserve.”

Over the course of two years, the state lost 1,100 providers, leaving some counties without a facility. 

Last year, Governor Mike Parson signed off on $78 million in child care subsidies to help low-income families, but he wants to see lawmakers do more. 

“I think if you’re really going to change the needle in the state to really help working class people every day try to make a living, we’ve got to help with the child care situation,” Parson said on the first day of session. “I hope we can get something done legislative-wide to help those everyday people.”

It’s estimated these tax credits will cost the state $70 million but those in favor said it would pay for itself with the number of Missourians that would be able to come back to work. 

“If we collected the tax on those employees, if they paid income tax, that would be $28 million that the state would collect,” Shields said. “This tax credit program is somewhere around $70 million. If we have people come to work, we can easily pay for this tax credit.”

Before heading to the full House for debate, the legislation still needs to be voted out of committee.