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Measure supporting tax breaks for child care centers heads to Missouri voters in 2024

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - 5/23/2023

May 22—JEFFERSON CITY — A possible tax break for child care centers backed by abortion opponents and business groups will appear before voters in 2024.

Before ending their annual legislative session this month, Missouri lawmakers signed off on a plan that will ask voters if lawmakers should be allowed to zero out personal and real property taxes for child care centers.

Placing the proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot represented a small win for those pushing to address child care staffing shortages, waiting lists and high prices in Missouri.

Gov. Mike Parson, in his State of the State speech in January, proposed a package of child care tax credits aimed at improving access. But those plans died at the end of the legislative session.

The Republican governor did secure $56 million for expanded pre-kindergarten, and legislators inserted another $80 million in the budget to raise child care provider subsidies.

"We've got to figure out a better way to provide day care for kids in this state. It's expensive. It's hard to find. I just really want people to go to work," Parson said in a recent interview with the Post-Dispatch.

Sam Lee, longtime lobbyist for Campaign Life Missouri, said the property tax exemption would play a small part in helping child care facilities. He said it would make good business sense for companies to use tax savings to raise wages for employees.

"They desperately need employees," Lee said. "They have the capacity. They have the room. But they don't have employees."

Lee said the break could help a company that decides to open a child care facility alongside its office or factory.

"That would normally be taxable property," Lee said. "This would exempt that."

Under the proposed amendment, personal and real property primarily used for child care would qualify for the exemption. If a portion of a property is used primarily for child care, that portion could be exempted.

A child's place of residence wouldn't qualify for the tax break.

The plan will appear on the November 2024 ballot unless Parson calls for a vote on another date.

The measure states that "the availability of childcare supports the well-being of children, families, the workforce, and society as a whole."

It was unclear how much of a hit local governments would take due to the exemption, according to a state fiscal analysis. Personal and real property taxes fund local governments.

House lawmakers gave final approval to the plan on the last day of the legislative session, with a bipartisan coalition of 91 lawmakers voting to place it on the ballot. Twenty-seven voted against it, and 31 voted present.

There was no dissension in the Senate, with the measure clearing the upper chamber unanimously on March 23.

In addition to Lee, Heidi Sutherland, representing the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Nancy Giddens, lobbying for the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and United WE, which advocates for women's economic empowerment, also testified for the measure in the Senate.

The legislation is Senate Joint Resolution 26.

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(c)2023 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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