Northern Colorado county approves $28M annual tax increase for child care

In a narrow victory, residents in Larimer County have approved a sales tax increase for the next 20 years in an effort to further provide child care. Residents in the Northern Colorado county agreed to increase their taxes by 25 cents for every $100 spent, estimated to bring in more than $28 million annually.

"Child care is incredibly expensive in Larimer County," said Christina Taylor, CEO of the Early Childhood Council of Larimer County.

Taylor said she noticed the measure was failing for most of election night as results came in, but never lacked faith that it would pass in the final push.

"We are excited it passed," said Karen Dunbar, a Larimer County resident.

"Very excited it passed, because I know it was close," said Brian Dunbar, Karen's husband.

The Dunbars said they were aware that the measure only passed by a few thousand votes, winning with 51% of the vote in favor.

In Larimer County, many child daycare facilities cost more per child than it would be to pay for in-state tuition at the local Colorado State University campus.

Taylor said the average Larimer County resident spends anywhere from 11% to 35% of their annual income on child care each year. With the tax increase, the goal is to drop the average expense to 10% or less.

A major chunk of the funding from the tax hike will go toward paying a sliding scale back to residents with children ages zero to five.

"To assure lower income families are getting more support, higher income families are getting more support, and everyone is getting a little bit," Taylor said.

Another portion of the money was promised to go toward further securing child care staff through raises and other methods.

"Early educators are making wages that don't meet their credentials; they aren't able to live in our community," Taylor said. "Part of the issue here in Larimer County is that there are not enough spots for families, either. A big part of that is because early childhood is not seen as an attractive profession, so there is a huge amount of turnover."

Taylor said it may take at least a year for the money to start flowing into the system and back out into the community, which is why the wording of the successful measure assured the money would continue to flow into the program for at least 20 years.

"This feels like a huge win for women like me who really wanted to be in the workforce but couldn't afford it because child care was so expensive," Taylor said.

The Dunbars said they voted in favor of the measure as a way to give back to future generations of Northern Coloradans.

"We need to support our kids and provide good daycare for everyone," Karen Dunbar said.

The couple said they knew it was expensive for their granddaughter, Leona, to go to daycare and wanted to make sure future generations of children would have the same access to quality childcare as she did.

"Child care is such an important issue for so many people right now, and the cost of it is high. So, anything we can do to help those people we need to, we will support it," Brian Dunbar said.