MADISON- WI. — Main Street Alliance of Wisconsin applauds the announcements made today by Gov. Tony Evers on how to best use the $3.8 billion dollar state surplus, especially his commitment to invest in caregiving and provide a robust tax break for families with kids in child care.
Help with the costs of child care is a workforce and labor policy. By making child care less expensive for families it will help many increase their hours or seek out work by removing this barrier. Instead of punishing workers — as proposed by majority leadership in the legislature — we should be removing barriers for families, especially women, including investments in child care and expansion of Badgercare, with a public option.
“The families who have kids in my child care were thrilled to learn about the enhanced child and dependent care credit in the American Rescue Plan. For many of our families, that will mean thousands of dollars right back in their pockets to put into the local economy here in New Glarus,” Said Corrine Hendrickson, Main Street Alliance Member and owner of Corrine’s Little Explorers, a home-based child care business.
“Furthermore, by matching this state credit to the federal rate that will help provide additional relief to families who have been through a lot this past year. There are larger, structural issues we need to address in child care, and to do so we need to pass the Build Back Better child care plan, but this is a huge step in the right direction.”
The Department of Children and Families, under the Governor’s leadership, already has substantially increased the SHARES subsidy to make child care affordable for low income families. This further credit, outlined today, will help all families, including those who earn too much for the SHARES program. This will be a huge boost to the already fast growing Wisconsin economy.
We look forward to working with the legislature and the Governor’s office to make this happen.
For a deeper dive on Corrine and other Main Street Alliance members struggles with child care check out this amazing piece from yesterday by Natalie Yahr of the Cap Times here.
