St. Paul residents will be able to approve tax increases to fund childcare services at the ballot box in 2024, as the city council voted on Aug. 16 to override the mayor’s veto. The vote came weeks after the mayor vetoed the council’s resolution to place a proposal to pay for low-income childcare subsidies by raising property taxes on next year’s ballot.
During the vote to override the mayor’s veto, Councilmember Rebecca Noecker of Ward 2 spoke to the commitment many in the room shared to get the proposal on the ballot.
“This is a vote that honors the incredible amount of work done by so many people over so many years, many of whom are here in the room today, and most recently, our early learning legislative advisory committee,” she said. “We’ve asked and answered dozens of questions about how this program will work over the last seven years. and I look forward to answering dozens more over the next 18 months.”
The council voted 5-2 with council members Mitra Jalali of Ward 4 and Russel Balenger of Ward 1 voting no. Jalali spoke ahead of her vote about her decision not to support the resolution due to a procedural issue.
“I will be standing by my original position that what concerns me about this action is that it is the current council ordering an election. It’s not a petition process, and it’s not actually a structured budget conversation the way other programs are pursued,” she said. “I don’t think this is the appropriate route to pursue what I see as a worthy goal. So, I’ll stand by my original vote.”
Ahead of the council’s vote, Mayor Melvin Carter held a press conference in his office to walk members of the media through why he had decided to veto the resolution in the first go-around. He stood between two whiteboards showing how much it would cost the city to fully fund childcare for some families and significantly subsidize it for others.
“I would love to have a policy conversation,” the mayor said, “but the truth is this is not a debate over policy. This is a debate over basic math. I want to show you the difference between building policy for implementation and building policy for Twitter.”
In referencing the city council’s resolution, the mayor told members of the press that child care could cost the city nearly $111 million annually at a minimum despite the proposal allowing voters to raise taxes by $20 million, leaving a $90 million gap.
Carter’s estimate came from the calculation that it would take $81 million to fully fund child care for families earning below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, $20 million to subsidize child care for families earning above that, and another roughly $10 million used for administrative and onboarding costs.
The mayor then pointed to his staff and stated that none of them had the opportunity to perform a fiscal analysis on any of the funding and costs since he hadn’t received any information from the council.
“All of a sudden,” he said, “we found ourselves in a place where there’s a rush to put this on the ballot. For some reason, there’s a rush to pass a resolution this year to put it on the ballot next year. And someone without the participation of my office or without the participation of my administration decided that we should be responsible for the work to do it.”
In an interview with the MSR, Noecker refuted the idea that the proposal was rushed and said it had taken years to reach this stage. “I would strongly push back against the notion that this proposal has not been well thought through or well researched.
“As I mentioned,” she said, “we have some of the best evidence for why this is a good policy investment than we have for most of the other, any of the other public policies we enact as a city,” she said. “I think something that’s really important to note is the fact that you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something.”
Noecker underlined the needs that families have for fully funded or subsidized child care options. She pointed to how Minnesota’s childcare costs are high compared to other states and rank among the most expensive nationwide. Funding child care for St. Paul families would help them achieve a better work-life balance, have children show up more prepared to kindergarten, and have positive social and health outcomes, according to Noecker.
Cities across the country such as Denver and New Orleans are looking to provide assistance to families by supporting childcare programs through similar ballot measures and tax increases.
University of Minnesota Professor Elizabeth Davis is a professor of applied economics. Her research focuses on child care and early education, and she has particular expertise in the areas of childcare assistance policy in Minnesota and other states.
Davis stated that it’s been a popular notion on the ballot to see tax increases used to fund childcare programs, and the research points to long-lasting benefits. “The research is quite compelling that particularly for children from disadvantaged and low-income families, the effects of high quality, early care and education are both short and long run,” she said.
Davis also said that she sees both sides when it comes to the debate taking place in St. Paul on how to go about funding child care. “I thought it was great that the city council was getting out there on this issue and emphasizing its importance and trying to find a solution. But I also respect the mayor’s concern about getting the details right and the funding,” she said.
According to Davis, there are different childcare options parents can typically choose from, depending on their child’s age and needs. Programs such as HeadStart are federally funded. And some school districts, such as St. Paul Public Schools, have preschool programs. Childcare assistance is another option that low-income families may be able to participate in.
To fund these programs, Davis states that property taxes are a great option for local buy-in from voters who might vote to support their neighbors and community members with care for children. However, there is the issue of some inequity in the process, since areas with higher property values will have more funding to support their childcare options.
Mayor Carter has said that the council’s proposal would task his office with overseeing the program without being able to define it. In response to this, Noecker stated that she and the other members of the council want to do this in partnership with the mayor’s office.
“We want this to be a collaborative effort,” she said. “I believe policies work best when there’s full buy-in, and over the last seven years we have been in conversation with the mayor. He has been invited to the table most recently to be present or send a delegate to our early learning committee. He did not take that option.”
Noecker said that she and the mayor have been in conversation following the override and have set a date to move the conversation forward.
The mayor stated in his press conference on the day of the override that he would be open to considering something brought by the council that included an implementation plan and a detailed budget with the costs and revenues that equal out.
Councilmember Noecker clarified that the proposal would not lead to the city being responsible for covering child care fully or partially for every child in St. Paul. She stated that there would be a gradual approach to the program that would include pilot years to see what works and scale up from there.
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