Cape News

A Missouri Senate committee recently heard testimony on an innovative legislative package which would increase the capacity of child care providers and help businesses offer child care benefits to support the retention and recruitment of employees.  

A Missouri House committee has already heard the companion bill, HB 870, sponsored by Rep. Brenda Shields (R-St. Joseph). This week, the Senate Governmental Accountability Committee heard from the Senate sponsor of this legislation, Sen. Lauren Arthur (D-Kansas City), who is the sponsor of SB 184 which was modified in committee to include the innovative child care package.

This legislation offers three types of tax credits: 

• One tax credit can be utilized by businesses to make contributions to employees’ child care providers to offset their costs. Contributions must be used by child care providers to promote child care for children under the age of 12.
• Another tax credit is for employer-sponsored child care (on-site or contracted by an off-site provider).
• The third tax credit is to support child care providers in making capital investments to acquire or improve their facilities and to support their workforce through payroll tax deductions. 

Sen. Arthur cited the Missouri Chamber’s child care report in her testimony, saying “Twenty-eight percent of respondents in that report said that they or someone in their household left a job or did not take a job because of problems with child care.”

“A lot of people used to think that child care was just an issue for working parents to figure out,” said Missouri Chamber Vice President of Governmental Affairs Kara Corches. “What we have found through research, through polling, and through non-stop calls from businesses across the state, is that child care is not simply a working parents’ issue, it is a workforce issue, and it is an economic issue for the state.” 

Corches went on to say, “We survey business leaders and CEOs every year. For the first time ever in this annual poll, we asked a question about child care. The results were staggering. Almost 80 percent of business owners in Missouri say the cost and availability of child care are making it harder for them to recruit and retain employees.” 

For more information, contact Corches at kcorches@mochamber.com or call (573) 634-3511. 

Original source can be found here.