JEFFERSON CITY — Lawmakers and business interests are giving renewed attention to a set of tax credits to expand child care in Missouri.
Several business organizations from across Missouri advocated for the tax credits at a House Workforce and Infrastructure Development committee hearing Wednesday.
Representing the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and other Kansas City-based groups, Nancy Giddens called child care a “No. 1 issue” for businesses.
Legislation under consideration this year includes three distinct tax credits: One for a “contribution” toward another’s child care, one for employers who provide employees’ child care or assist with expenses, and one for child care providers.
For each tax credit category, the state could issue no more than $20 million annually, and each taxpayer could receive no more than $200,000 in tax breaks.
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“We support anything you’re willing to do, particularly this bill,” Giddens said.
“Our state’s child care crisis is an economic issue that impacts families and businesses,” said Kaylee Paffrath, director of business development for the Moberly Area Economic Development Corporation.
Gov. Mike Parson last year pushed for the child care tax credit package as part of a larger effort to increase child care availability in the state.
The governor secured an $80 million subsidy for child care providers serving low-income families. Lawmakers also placed a measure on this year’s ballot that would ask voters to give lawmakers the power to exempt child care facilities from real property taxes.
“There isn’t anybody in the state that will disagree that we don’t have a child care crisis,” bill sponsor Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph, told the Post-Dispatch this week. “If we don’t put something on the table to solve the issue, the problem will still be here next year, and the following year, and the following year.”
Kara Corches, vice president of governmental affairs for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told the Post-Dispatch the child care tax credit package is a legislative priority for the organization.
Workforce shortages are a major pain point for businesses year after year, Corches said. “And what we found is that child care is a very critical component to that workforce shortage.”
Committee chair Rep. Louis Riggs, R-Hannibal, said he wants to get the bill to the House floor for debate “as fast as humanly possible” and over to the Senate for consideration.
“This is something that’s real important, that should’ve happened last year. It didn’t. It needs to happen this year,” he said.
Another version of the bill is being sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City.
Arthur was also part of last year’s effort to pass tax credit package.
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