Would Larimer County benefit from a new tax to boost child care options?
Coloradoan Conversations is the Coloradoan's opinion forum. Each week we'll pose conversation-starting questions online at Coloradoan.com/opinion, moderate online discussion and then recap the best discussion points.
This week's Coloradoan Conversation:
According to Early Childhood Council of Larimer County, the average cost of child care in the county is $199 to $324 per week depending on the age of the child, or roughly $10,000 to $17,000 a year.
That cost in providing adequate child care for the county's working parents is among the reasons the council is proposing a quarter-cent sales and use tax to boost child care access and affordability over the next 15 years. If pitched to voters this November, tax would add 25 cents to a $100 purchase and raise millions to boost care.
Advocates are hoping to win support for the tax effort from county commissioners, knowing that there may be several competing tax questions on the November ballot. And with inflation adding pressure to family budgets, they know they might face an uphill battle to passage.
So here's some tension: Everybody would pay this tax, which some have said is an unfair way of providing funding for such a targeted need. But employers know they lose productivity when working parents can't find or afford adequate care for their children.
So, knowing that local officials have to work with existing state regulations on early childhood centers, and that 42% of Larimer County families reduced their work due to lack of child care during the COVID pandemic, would you support increasing your tax load for this effort? What alternatives would you suggest, if not?
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This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Would Larimer County benefit from a tax to boost child care options?
