Tonight, Missouri voters rejected Amendment 1, which would have given state legislators the power to exempt childcare providers from property taxes.
The Missouri constitution requires voters to approve all new property tax exemptions before they can be made law, meaning that lawmakers still can’t write — or even propose — legislation to exempt childcare providers from property taxes without asking Missouri voters yet again.
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The bipartisan-backed legislation was introduced by Senator Travis Fitzwater, who said its goal was to allow lawmakers to craft legislation that would increase the number of children that can be served and address childcare deserts by decreasing cost burdens for childcare providers.
According to the Center for American Progress, 54% of people in Missouri live in a childcare desert. That’s an area with more than 50 children under age 5 with either no child care providers or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as licensed child care slots.
Data shows that in rural areas, finding childcare can be even harder. Amanda Coleman is the Vice President of Early Childhood and Family Development at Ozarks Community Partnership. They serve 17 counties — 16 of which are childcare deserts. Coleman said parents often have to rely on family members for childcare or quit their own jobs to stay home with the kids.
“In Springfield alone, we have about a 2000 shortage of infant care slots needed based on the amount of kids that we have in our community,” Coleman said. “So then if you take that number, and you apply it to a rural area where your county doesn't even have a childcare provider — I mean, where are you going to go?”
In Columbia, Paul Prevo said that a tax exemption could help the Tiger Tots facility by keeping expenses down and preventing price hikes for families seeking child care services.
“When your property taxes are increasing year over year, those costs begin to add up,” Prevo said.
Now that the Amendment 1 ballot measure hasn’t passed, lawmakers must decide whether they want to try putting the ballot measure before Missouri voters once again.
Senator Fitzwater did not respond to requests for comment regarding his next steps at the time of publication.
