Larimer County officials and the Early Childhood Council of Larimer County (ECCLC) used a June 23 work session to walk commissioners through a proposal to put a 0.25% sales tax on the November ballot that supporters say would generate about $28 million annually for early childhood services.

The proposal would allocate roughly 80% of revenues — about $22 million a year — to the ECCLC under a county contract and retain about 20% for the county to establish reserves, manage contracting and provide a county liaison, ECCLC CEO Christina Taylor and Human Services Director Heather O'Hare told the Board of County Commissioners.

Why it matters: ECCLC and county staff said the funding would be used to raise early childhood educator wages, expand tuition subsidies to reduce family childcare costs, invest in supply and capital projects to create more childcare slots, and expand supports such as mental-health consultation, occupational therapy and workforce supports. ECCLC estimates $11 million a year in tuition support could help 5,000–6,000 families; the council also modeled a $50-per-month health-insurance stipend for about 1,500 educators as one benefit option.

"We'll be making the case for public funding as a solution by putting forward a a point 25% sales tax on the ballot this November," said Steve Kenneman, president of the ECCLC board of directors. Heather O'Hare said of the county's share, "the vast majority of that would be put into reserves so that if there was a dip in the revenue in future years that it could be used."

Details and uses: ECCLC leaders described several specific program aims. The council said the revenue would support quarterly salary stipends for educators to help reach a self-sufficiency wage; expand scholarships and recruitment to grow the educator pipeline; fund shared-service models and a substitute pool; continue and expand coaching, mental-health consultation and an occupational-therapy pilot; and increase tuition subsidies so no family pays more than 10% of income for childcare under the proposed sliding-scale model.

Representative figures stated in the presentation include average weekly childcare costs of $200–$324 depending on age, families spending 12–20% of income on childcare (and in some cases 30–40%), ECCLC staffing of about 18 employees (rising to roughly 22 when fully hired), and a countywide estimate that Larimer County could need an additional $75–$80 million to close local funding shortfalls in the childcare system. ECCLC also said Colorado currently invests roughly $500 per child per year on average compared with much higher investments in some other countries.

Polling, campaign and governance: Christina Taylor said ECCLC has fielded voter polling three times over the past 4½ years and believes "there is a path to victory" but that results are not as strong as advocates would like given broader economic uncertainty. Taylor said ECCLC, as a 501(c)(3), will not run a campaign; if commissioners refer the measure, a separate campaign committee (a c(4) organization) would run the outreach and education effort. Taylor said ECCLC has secured more than half of the campaign funding needed to run a robust effort.

County role and contract: County staff explained the county would administer the contract should voters approve the tax. O'Hare said the county's portion would pay for a staff liaison to manage accounting, reimbursements and provide regular reports and work sessions for the board. County Manager Lorenda Volker noted that the county published a request for proposals and selected ECCLC as the proposed administrator; any future contract would include audits, performance measures and public reporting similar to other county-administered sales-tax programs.

CCAP, federal rules and limits: Commissioners pressed staff on the relationship between the proposed local tax and the state Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), now under an 18-month enrollment freeze in Larimer County. Heather O'Hare said it is too early to forecast how much local funds could lift the freeze or convert it to a waitlist because of pending federal and state rule changes and a multi-year schedule of CCAP provider-rate increases. She said state-level changes and an outstanding audit finding complicate projections and that statewide compliance with new federal requirements could require approximately $100 million more statewide.

Questions and next steps: Commissioners asked for more detail on benefit modeling, which Taylor said includes a $50-per-month stipend model that could reach about 1,500 educators and a tuition-subsidy pool of roughly $11 million annually that ECCLC projects could serve 5,000–6,000 families. Commissioners also asked about polling, campaign funding and employer support; Taylor said the business community has shown backing and that polling shows voters understand the issue even if the margin is not yet decisive.

No formal referral or vote occurred at the June 23 work session. County Manager Volker said staff will return with an administrative-matters agenda item if commissioners want to consider formal referral; she suggested that could occur in late July or early August. Commissioners asked staff to provide any additional requested information before making a referral decision.

Ending: Commissioners thanked ECCLC leaders and staff for the presentation and said they would follow up with questions. No formal action or vote took place during the work session.