By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A package of incentives aimed at increasing child care in Missouri failed this past legislative session, the third year in a row the measure couldn’t win approval in the Missouri Senate.
St. Joseph state Rep. Brenda Shields, a Republican, says her measure got bogged down as lawmakers attempted to leverage it to promote their agendas.
“Once again, I think that people realized, I mean, it’s a priority of the governor’s. They realized it’s a priority and so they think that they want to wheel and deal, because they think it’s going to be a package that goes somewhere,” Sheilds tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And then they get to asking too much and it’s just something we can’t do.”
The measure ran into a brick wall the last two legislative sessions as squabbles between Republican leadership in the Missouri Senate and the Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative Republicans, locked up the Senate and blocked several bills from passing.
The child care package failed the past two legislative sessions, despite support from then-Gov. Mike Parson and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce. Gov. Mike Kehoe has taken up the issue and given the measure his support. Still, it ran into other objections this past legislative session and, once again, could not break through Senate filibusters.
“A lot of the objections are, you know, that maybe women shouldn’t be working; women should be staying at home. I don’t know how we ever overcome that objection,” Shields says. “But we’re going to regroup this summer and we’re going to look at the package. And we’re going to see if there is anything we can do any different that might be able to get it across the finish line.”
The tax incentive package is capped at $60 million. It would provide up to $20 million in tax breaks for three groups: businesses that help employees offset the cost of child care, individuals who donate or invest in child care, and child care centers which add staff or expand capacity.
Shields insists it is an approach that can work, stating this is a problem the state cannot solve on its own.
“So, we’re asking the business community and we’re asking individuals in our state who care about this to donate and contribute and build first and then the state will get involved.”
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