Lacey Campbell, commissioner of social services and mental health, told the Human Services Committee that the county needs additional funding to cover individuals already approved for the childcare subsidy after state and federal eligibility changes increased demand. Campbell said the county had to stop approving new childcare subsidy applications in April because funding ran out and that the requested legislative appropriation would cover already approved cases for the next 12 months. “This is the first year where counties are consistently running out of day care funds,” Campbell said.

Why it matters: the eligibility and contribution changes are set at the federal and state level, and local officials said they do not have flexibility to prioritize applications or raise family contributions to reduce demand. Campbell said one major federal eligibility change expanded eligibility to families at 300% of the federal poverty level; she gave an example that a family of four earning “a little over $113,000 a year is now eligible.” At the same time, counties were told to set the family share at 1% rather than the local standard of 5%, which Campbell said materially increased program use.

Campbell described the legislative request at the meeting but the dollar figure read during the presentation was not clear in the transcript. She said the county’s childcare allocation without rollover had been $13,400,000 and that the additional funds being requested are intended only to maintain benefits for those already approved; “We will not be able to open any additional cases with these funds,” she said.

Committee members asked about geographic patterns and provider impacts. Campbell said the subsidy is used throughout the county and that some child care centers rely heavily on the subsidy for families (and in some cases for center staff who use the subsidy). The county follows a first-come, first-served approval process based on state and federal criteria and “is not permitted to prioritize based on what we need,” she said.

Campbell also gave a broader operations update for the Department of Social Services: in May the department provided temporary assistance to 1,533 cases (594 family assistance and 939 safety net); 18,828 cases received SNAP benefits; there were average emergency housing populations of 19 families and 47.4 single adults in shelters in May; 133 families and 173 singles were placed in hotels and motels; 28 individuals moved into permanent housing from the housing resource center in May; and 824 individuals experiencing homelessness received services in May 2025, an increase of 94 from the prior year. She said locally managed Medicaid cases numbered about 20,490 in a reporting month and that statewide recertification (“unwind”) is causing a gradual drop in caseloads.

Campbell described child protective services (315 reports investigated in May) and foster care (146 children in out-of-home placement, a decrease of 64 from the prior year). She said adult protective services had 294 active cases in May and the consumer-directed personal assistance transition to a single statewide fiscal intermediary is progressing without the county risking administration funding.

The committee heard a motion to move the legislative request; the transcript records the motion being moved but does not record a second or a recorded vote. No formal result is recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.