SALT LAKE CITY — A group of organizations and philanthropists are warning lawmakers that not funding child care demands will hurt Utah families.
The Eccles Foundation, the Larry H. and Gail Miller Foundation, the Salt Lake Chamber, United Way of Salt Lake, Holy Cross Ministries and others sent a letter to lawmakers demanding funding for child care needs.
"Approximately 77% of Utahns live in a childcare desert, demonstrating that the majority of our state lacks sufficient licensed childcare to meet families’ needs," the letter, shared with FOX 13 News, said. "This predicament stems from both limited availability of services and the strikingly high cost of quality care. When available, the high cost of care inhibits lower income families from participating in the workforce."
The problem is pandemic-era federal money is drying up and child care centers are either having to raise rates to keep operating, which impacts families who need it, or close. Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said about $400 million in federal COVID money for child care will go away.
But so far, the legislature has largely appeared uninterested in funding child care needs. Instead, lawmakers are advancing a $160 million income tax cut. Child care advocates have argued for that money to be spent elsewhere like on their needs.
"We are going to feel that pinch," said Anna Thomas, the policy director for Voices for Utah Children, which signed on to the letter. "Utah families are the ones who absorb all of that cost, all of that stress and all of that anxiety about their kids because they can’t get their leaders to play a part to make a solution."
Asked about child care funding, Senate Majority Whip Ann Millner, R-Ogden, said they don't have the money to make up the gap. She expressed interest in a tax credit to help private employers fund child care solutions, but acknowledged that may not happen this legislative session.
"We don’t really have that kind of money. What I think we have to do is think about what we can do," she said.
Sen. Millner gave support to Sen. Escamilla's new bill that would take unused space in state office buildings to create child care centers. That bill also has the support of Voices for Utah Children.
"We have a high demand. There’s a lot of deserts of child care," the Senate Minority Leader said.
Read the letter to lawmakers here:
