Affordable child care investment for Travis County may be on November ballot

At its June 25 meeting, the Travis County Commissioners Court took a step toward expanding access to early childhood care and after-school services for low-income residents, setting Aug. 13 for a public hearing on a proposed 2.5-cent property tax rate increase election this November to fund those services. The idea began in May, when commissioners unanimously passed the CARES Resolution, directing Health and Human Services to begin the process of researching how child care options could be expanded. In its update Tuesday, county HHS provided commissioners with some proposed details. 

The No. 1 priority is to expand the number of slots available because federal and state funds for child care that got a boost from COVID relief have now largely dried up. There are only around 3,000 state-funded slots locally, and around 4,500 people are on a two-year wait to access them. Last year, a study by the National Database of Childcare Prices found that the cost of child care in Travis County is higher than anywhere else in the state. In addition to being financially out of reach for most families, there aren’t enough options available to parents who work outside of 9-to-5 schedules.

HHS has a specific focus on expanding slots within nontraditional hours – meaning after school, evenings and weekends. The goal is to add 1,407 new slots overseen by a contractor (or several) that would procure providers for those services. HHS said Tuesday that an unnamed major hospital chain has expressed interest.

However, the county will have to balance increasing capacity without competing with the existing Workforce Solutions Capital Area child care subsidy program. That means pay raises to equalize any possible gaps between subsidized and new contracted slots. HHS told commissioners the cost to provide quality care is at minimum $20 an hour. Commissioner Ann Howard also stressed the need for regular check-ins to make sure providers are using the county’s funding to pay their employees. Another policy decision commissioners will have to make in August is eligibility requirements for the program – whether it will be based on federal, state or local income metrics.

“When a program is tied to income, how often will a family have to re-qualify?” Howard asked. “What happens if you gain income? Do you just pay more or do you get kicked out?”

Once these key details are worked out, they will be presented in a public hearing Aug. 13, and commissioners will then vote on whether or not to hold a tax rate election in November for Fiscal Year 2024-25 that would create a $76.75 million public fund, serving more than 8,000 children in the county and beginning late 2025 or early 2026.

“It’s not so much building a plane in our community,” Cathy McHorse with United Way Greater Austin said. “The plane exists – we just need to put the gas in the plane so it can take off and fly and do its work.”

 In other news, the county won its fourth national award for climate resilience efforts from the National Association of Counties (NACo), specifically for its purple pipe program, which uses treated wastewater for nonpotable purposes in county buildings and eliminates the demand for about 45 million gallons of water annually from the Colorado River. Commissioners further renewed efforts toward resilience by passing a resolution Tuesday to include nature-based infrastructure in all county construction projects.

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