Hello Senator Marklein,

I read the e-update from October 20th. I am very disappointed in what was stated. I feel that I am not being heard about what is going on about child care and the funding. We are a public good to the people we serve. We are one of the only public goods that does not get funding from anything. Agriculture gets subsidized so people can afford to eat. Manufacturing and ag also have an effective state tax rate of 0.4% This is still public investment.

Let’s start with the tax cut. I am putting a link in that will explain better than I can with my words. I am also putting the Census for Green County (article: https://

wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/10/19/how-a-proposed-child-care-tax-

credit-helps-wealthier-households/)

Census Green County: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/

greencountywisconsin.

You are right, the Governor did claw back $170 Million in unspent funds to the child care counts program. However, this is half of what he asked for in the budget. This program has helped us keep our rates down and has helped us be able to raise the pay rate for the staff. All of my families are paying more in childcare than their mortgage payment. 

A lot of programs have raised their rates already to offset this loss. We do not have a product where parents can make the choice between paying for the goods or leaving it on the shelf. I cannot make one big investment into my program to help my parents with the price of care. I am not ok with not providing the quality of care I am right now to a quality that is less. If quality goes down we will be paying more in the long run to put these children into the juvenile system. It costs per day for a juvenile in a juvenile center ($1,524) per day. 

By the way, you gave the staff at the juveniles center a raise this year and are very proud of it. Why can’t we get a wage that we can live off of and plan for the future? Instead of living paycheck to paycheck every year we are in business. I am sure you enjoy going out sometimes or even going on a vacation with your family to make memories and  being able to reset to take on your job better. A lot of us can not go out and support your local business’s and economy.

Now let’s talk about the fact that we have the slots now but don’t have the staff to care for the children. People are not starting or working in the child care sector because you can not make a life with it. Unless you have a partner that has the insurance, and hope you stay together for retirement so you can live off of what they made.

I do have an idea for helping with the cost of care. Here is the link to what Vermont did. We need to start looking at what other states are doing with their child care costs (https://letsgrowkids.org/vermont-child-care-bill-act-76-educators-families-kids). Child care cannot work by only relying on the parents to pay for it. As an industry that is run by mostly women we are not sitting down and taking it anymore we are standing up for what we as women deserve and what our families deserve. I look forward to hearing from you or your staff.

— Why Child Care Matters is a series written by local child care providers. Jillynn Niemeier is with Blue Door Daycare in Monroe.