August Pulse Poll:
Bipartisan Childcare Package
Count on Mothers is excited to find out how this new childcare legislation would impact families. Our thanks go out to Megan Prior, MD who partnered with us on the data instrument. Please take two minutes to let us know if you think these bills would have a personal impact on your family, or if they would have when your kids were younger.
On July 31st, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) introduced a pair of bipartisan bills that hope to make childcare more affordable and accessible: the Childcare Availability and Affordability Act and the Child Care Workforce Act.
• Increase the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. This credit allows you to deduct some money from your taxes every year for child care expenses (child care, a nanny, summer camp, after-school care etc.). This new legislation would raise the maximum credit to $2500 per year for one child and to $4000 per year for two or more children.
• Make the child care tax credit refundable. Let’s say that you have one child in care but you don’t owe at least $2,500 in taxes. Currently, you would not receive the credit. This legislation would allow that $2,500 credit to be sent to you as a refund.
• Increase the amount you are allowed to set aside in a child care FSA from $5000 to $7500. An FSA is a Flexible Spending Account that some employers offer, which lets their employees put a tax-free portion of their salary aside to pay for certain expenses.
• Increase the Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit to promote employee-sponsored child care. The Kaine-Britt plan would increase the maximum credit for employers who provide childcare to their employees from $150,000 to $500,000, and the percentage of expenses covered from 25% to 50%.
• Establish a grant program for states and localities to raise child care worker wages. This part will be accomplished by the Child Care Workforce Act ands is structured similarly to existing model programs in Virginia, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Maine, and the District of Columbia. Grantees would provide supplements, paid out at least quarterly, directly to both home-based and center-based licensed child care providers licensed by the state.
