Ohio bill looks to reduce child care costs

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – New bills at the Ohio Statehouse aim to save working parents some money when it comes to child care.

“Child care in our state is too scarce and when it’s available, it’s too expensive,” Ohio Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Rick Carfagna said.

According to the state department of children and youth 800,000 working parents have cut back work hours due to child care barriers.

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Senate Bill 273, sponsored by Sen. Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester), and its identical House bill (that has yet to be assigned a number), sponsored by Rep. Mark Johnson (R-Chillicothe) aims to bring those parents back to the workforce and support others.

The legislation would create a three-way cost-share program, meaning the state, an employer and employee would split the cost of child care three ways. It is completely optional for an employer to participate.

“As employers come on the market and decide to do it, other employers will feel the pressure and that’s what drives competition in the market,” Reynolds said.

“I believe this is going to be a widely popular program amongst employers and I don’t think we’ll have a problem getting employers to participate,” Johnson said.

If a business does participate, under the program, the employer will pay at least one-third of the child care cost — with the option to pay more. The state and employee will cover the rest. But the split will at least be a third each way.

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There are $10 million taxpayer dollars allocated in the bill to help the state cover its share. Reynolds said it is a “while supplies last situation.”

“It’s not necessarily to subsidize, if you will, a benefit program that will last in perpetuity. It’s to get this started to help bring to market more child care,” Reynolds said. “We’re being modest, $10 million is not a lot of money, I would say in the grand scheme of things, but it is a start.”

In order to be eligible, the business has to be in Ohio and so does the employee. The employee also cannot be eligible for publicly funded child care. The average cost of child care in Ohio ranges from about $8,500 dollars to more than $11,000.

“Any discussion of workforce must include access to housing, transportation and perhaps the single biggest throttle to employment entry or reentry at this moment and that’s child care,” Carfagna said.

Speaker of the Ohio House Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said bills like this move the state in the right direction.

“Finding different ways and being creative financially to where the government may be able to help and leverage the assistance to come up with a great plan, I think it’s potentially a very good idea,” Stephens said.

Democrat House sources told NBC4 there was no co-sponsor request for the bill, so they did not know about it before it was introduced, but it is an issue they would “very likely jump into.”

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Democrat leaders in the Senate also said they do not know the details of this bill. Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said any child care bill should also include provisions to increase provider salaries and increase the threshold for subsidies, but this is a good start.

“It’s not an ‘either, or’ it’s a ‘but, and’” Antonio said. “It is and we need to look at all kinds of different strategies.”

“I’ll be the first to admit this is not a silver bullet to fix all child care,” Johnson said.

The bills’ sponsors said their legislation was based on other programs in Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky. Both bills await their first committee hearing.

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