A Boost for Child Care

Available child care could be expanded significantly if employers were encouraged to help foot the bills of parents in their employ, either by providing care directly or by treating child-care costs as a fringe benefit.

The California Legislature wants to nudge employers in that direction with a program of state tax credits, but so far Gov. George Deukmejian has not agreed. A measure to offer such credits is once again sailing along toward the governor’s desk, and this time we hope that he signs it.

The legislation, SB 722, is sponsored by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and co-authored by Sens. Becky Morgan (R-Los Altos Hills) and John Seymour (R-Anaheim). Companies could qualify either by starting their own child-care programs or by helping to pay for child care. Employers would get a 30% tax credit--to a maximum of $30,000--for studies to determine need and for construction or renovation of their own child-care centers. Employers could also deduct from their taxes half the money that they spend to help employees pay for child care. That deduction would be limited to $600 per child for full-time care and $300 per child for part-time care, like after-school programs.

Because it is not possible to predict just how many employers would participate in the plan, it is hard to estimate the cost to the state. It could be as little as $250,000 a year or as much as $3 million.

Clearly there is a need for more child-care services in California. The Children’s Defense Fund reports that there are 2,144,000 children under the age of 5 in California and only 617,625 child-care slots for them. Almost half of all children under 5 have mothers who work.

The legislation, which will go before the Assembly Ways and Means Committee on Monday, would help business. Companies and public agencies with child-care programs have found it easier to recruit and retain employees, thus reducing training costs. Absenteeism declines because parents worry less about whether their youngsters are in good hands. The bill would be of particular help to small companies that cannot afford even modest programs.

Measures similar to SB 722 have come before Deukmejian twice, and both times he has vetoed them on the ground that the state couldn’t afford them. Despite the vetoes, the idea remains a model of the kind of public-private partnership that is often mentioned as the wave of the future in meeting society’s needs. Now that Republican presidential candidate George Bush has suggested the offering of federal tax credits to help parents pay for costs of child care, California logically should be moving to help the private sector make its own contribution.