August ballot includes tax exemption amendment for child care centers
By Leah Rainwater
Missouri’s primary election is set for Aug. 6, and voters will decide on an amendment that could affect child care facilities statewide.
In May, Gov. Mike Parson signed to add two amendments to the ballot next month, including Amendment 1, or Senate Joint Resolution 26.
If the amendment is approved by voters, it allows the General Assembly to exempt all real and personal property taxes from child care facilities.
“Any little bit is gonna help,” said Brandy Bumphrey, the director and manager of Country Kids Learning Center in Savannah. “I mean things have been rough since COVID, and you know, all of the relief funds and everything that were available were great, but they’ve all kinda dried up now.”
Bumphrey said approval would provide some extra cash for little things around the office.
“Personal property taxes are a couple thousand dollars every year,” Bumphrey said. “So that’s just more money that can be put into new equipment. We do a professional curriculum. It’s just more money to put towards the kids. It’s an opportunity to provide the staff with a tiny raise.”
In order to provide the tax break for child care facilities, the amendment would push all tax money lost from the exemption onto all property in subclass 3 of class 1 in each county, which consists of utility, industrial, commercial, railroad and all other property that isn’t personal, agricultural or horticultural.
The proclamation states, “All revenues lost because of the exemption of certain personal property of manufacturers, refiners, distributors, wholesalers, and retail merchants and establishments shall be replaced to each taxing authority within a county from a countywide tax hereby imposed on all property in subclass 3 of class 1 in each county.”
If the amendment is implemented, different counties won’t know the exact levy until it is calculated during tax season.
Bumphrey said there’s no way to know the downsides of the amendment until it is implemented.
“A lot of times we don’t see the backlash until it actually happens and we get a little bit of information on it,” Bumphrey said. “Like I said, it’s just like the relief funds. They were great, until you went to go do your taxes, and then it was like, ‘Oh, maybe they weren’t so great.’”
Legislators say they want to be able to keep child care facilities in business amid a state shortage.
“Child care struggles to bring in enough money and enough funds to cover our overhead, to cover our payroll, while also not strapping parents, so that they feel like they work just to pay for day care,” Bumphrey said.
In that regard, the proclamation also states, “Because the availability of childcare supports the well-being of children, families, the workforce, and society as a whole, all property, real and personal, used primarily for the care of the child outside of his or her home may be exempted from taxation by general law.”
One thing Bumphrey made sure to repeat was that every little bit helps when it comes to child care throughout the state of Missouri.
