St. Paul Child Care Question, Lottery Dollar Change, Angie Craig

Opinion Editor’s Note: Strib Voices released Letters from readers daily online and in print. To contribute, click Here.

In the 1990s, I was the child care coordinator for the city of St. Paul. I worked at Ramsey County Human Services as a planner, including with the county’s child care program. I am also a mother who raised two children in St. Paul, two children who benefited from excellent child care from a great child care provider. I agree with the City Council that this community and our economy cannot thrive unless all families can find and pay for quality child care. But I also agree with Mayor Melvin Carter that the city is not the right institution to provide resources for families to pay for child care (“St. Paul mayor says he won’t implement child care measure “, Oct. 16).

In this election, St. Paul voters will have the opportunity to vote yes or no on a proposal to increase property taxes – $2 million in the first year and $20 million per year in the tenth year. These funds benefit a small proportion of children who need childcare. And a significant part of these funds must be spent on the administration of the program.

In 2023, Minnesota spent $236.7 million on federal and state child care assistance programs, helping 11,540 families pay for child care that year. The state program is administered by counties, which have funding staff, a state-run mainframe system, expertise in verifying income, assets and other eligibility criteria, as well as the means to pay child care providers. The city does not have this infrastructure.

Current government investments do not cover all families who need help paying child care costs so they can remain working during their children’s younger years. State lawmakers in recent years have proposed and considered legislation to fully fund the state’s child care program. I want to ask St. Paul City Council members, Mayor Carter and voters to devote energy and attention to a significant increase in the state’s investment – an investment that will make a big difference to Minnesota’s economy and to families with children would.

St. Paul is a property tax-poor city because we are home to so many properties that do not incur property taxes: colleges, government office buildings, and the usual tax-free churches and nonprofits. The result is that the city struggles to fulfill its core mission – streets, sidewalks, parks, etc. The city would have to duplicate a delivery system that already exists. This is not a sensible use of city resources.

Deborah Schlick, St. Paul