Central Coast Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal has introduced a bill addressing childcare affordability. Called the Child Care Investment Act, it would extend existing tax credits and write-offs for childcare expenses, allow businesses to create new childcare options and more.
KCBX’s Benjamin Purper spoke with Carbajal about his proposed legislation. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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So you are promoting this bill you wrote to address childcare affordability. Can you tell us about that?
Right after the pandemic, as we saw, there was significant inflation going on, and I wanted to better understand small businesses and families what that impact was that they were experiencing.
One of those costs that existed in the past but was exacerbated during the pandemic and afterwards was childcare. So as a result, I listened and I teamed up with one of my Republican colleagues and I introduced the Childcare Investment Act.
This would increase the maximum credit amount for businesses from $150,000 to $500,000. It increases the tax rate from 25 to 50%, and it makes accredited in-home childcare expenses eligible. It also gives small businesses a larger credit of 60% rate and maximum credit amount of up to $600,000. And it increases and makes refundable the child and development care credit to allow more childcare expenses to be written out by middle class families.
There's a few more details and numbers I could throw out at you, but this is the gist of what we're doing.
As you're promoting this bill and around the Central Coast, what kind of support have you gotten locally from different organizations around this bill?
Childcare organizations such as the First Five Commission have endorsed the bill. Chambers of Commerce have endorsed the bill throughout the Central Coast, and a number of businesses have been supportive, [as well as] local governments. And I think it goes to inform us that this is a significant challenge in our communities.
You mentioned that you partnered with a Republican congressman on this, but what do you say to any opposition who think this is too expensive — that we already have these write-offs in place, so why do we need to expand them?
I would say, this is not a new childcare tax credit. It's a refinement and a modernization of the caps and the levels to really make it incentivize businesses and families to take advantage of them.
It's been said that the economic impact of lack of childcare availability in our region amounts to more than $300 million a year. And that same study found that 70% of parents with children under five years had a difficult time finding affordable childcare in our region. Childcare is an economic issue for our economy and our businesses and our communities, and this certainly provides an opportunity to extend that benefit.
