Travis County Human Resource Management Department asked Commissioners Court on Aug. 14 to earmark $850,000 in the FY 2026 budget to create a subsidized dependent-care benefit pilot for county employees.
Chief Human Resource Officer Dr. Junmaiti and Benefits Manager Shannon Steele told the court the proposed program would follow IRS dependent-care flexible-spending rules and be modeled on the City of Austin's long-running subsidy and Capital Metro's newly launched program. Steele described a model that would deposit up to $5,000 per eligible employee into a dependent-care (flexible spending) account administered by the county's flexible-spending administrator. The draft plan would cap participation on a first-come, first-served basis if demand exceeds the earmark.
HRMD said the estimate used a 3 percent participation rate based on City of Austin's historical uptake and the county's employee population; that rate gave a planning number of roughly $850,000. HRMD also described differences between the county-sponsored subsidy and the workforce childcare scholarship funded by a separate tax-rate election (the scholarship targets lower-income residents and has stricter eligibility tied to training and residency).
Commissioners asked operational questions about eligibility, how the county and the scholarship might interact and whether employees could use both programs; HRMD said an application would capture prior participation in other programs and that further program mechanics would be created during the pilot design. HRMD said it hoped to launch the program during open enrollment if the court approved an earmark to support a pilot implementation plan.
No action was taken Aug. 14 beyond the hearing; HRMD will refine program mechanics and report back to PBO and the court with details on eligibility limits and costing.
Why this matters: Subsidized dependent-care helps working parents afford childcare and may improve recruitment and retention for county jobs; the county's workforce includes many employees who live outside Travis County, which HR said affects eligibility for some existing county-funded scholarships.