A push for a 3-cent child care tax to fund services is gaining attention, but Dallas County commissioners have yet to consider sending it to voters.
By Tracey McManus, & Wilborn P. Nobles III
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
As child care costs strain families across North Texas, a coalition of nonprofits wants Dallas County voters to consider a new property tax to fund services – though its chances of reaching the ballot this fall is uncertain.
Miguel Solis, president of Commit Partnership, met April 3 with county Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins and county Administrator Darryl Martin to propose an election on
raising homeowner property taxes by 3 cents per $100 assessed valuation to fund child care services.
Within a week, Jenkins announced at a Dallas Regional Chamber event that the county was exploring the idea as a way to help families and businesses cope with child care needs.
“We’re looking at that model now,” Jenkins told the crowd of about 130.
It’s not yet clear whether a child care tax will reach the Nov. 3 county ballot, but any proposal to raise property taxes is likely to be contentious.
The idea, crafted by a coalition of four nonprofits, is still taking shape and the all-Democratic commissioners court has not yet discussed whether to advance the measure. Jenkins’ four colleagues had not been briefed on specifics before he announced the county was exploring the potential 3-cent tax measure at the chamber banquet.
Dallas County would not be the first to try.
In November 2024, Travis County voters passed the first child care levy in Texas – a 2.5-cent tax expected to generate $75 million a year for early childhood, after-school and summer programming for 9,000 children.
Locally, the coalition of Commit, Dallas Area Interfaith, North Texas Early Education Alliance and United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has been looking for solutions to the early childhood education crisis rippling across the region.
Cost burden
The need is substantial, the nonprofits told The Dallas Morning News.
About 9,500 families are on a waitlist to receive child care assistance through Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas. Child care in Dallas County can cost about $11,000 a year for one kid, according to the Living Wage Institute, approaching the cost of public college tuition.
“We have reached a point where we have got to do something,” said Melanie Rubin, director of the North Texas Early Education Alliance. “We’re losing on our future workforce, we’re losing on family stability, we’re just losing every which way we go and this is an opportunity to right that ship a little bit.”
Members of Dallas Area Interfaith talked to Commissioners Theresa Daniel, Elba Garcia and Andrew Sommerman about the concept of a child care tax in November, though details at that time were vague.
Sommerman said the 3-cent levy described by Jenkins at the April 8 chamber event was welcome news to him, and he supports letting voters decide it. The current county tax rate is 21.55 cents per $100 assessed valuation.
Sommerman said he has scheduled an initial discussion on the child care measure for the May 11 meeting of the county’s Continuous Improvement Steering Committee, which he chairs, and he wants to explore a component to pay for homeless needs.
“It is very challenging for us to come up with dollars every year out of the budget to fund homelessness,” he said. “Child care is equally as important though because if you have good child care people can go to work.”
The Dallas County Commissioners Court would have to vote to place the question on the Nov. 3 ballot. Martin, the county administrator, said an agenda item has not yet been scheduled as he is gathering financial data.
Details in flux
Even among commissioners key questions remain.
Garcia said she had not been briefed on the 3-cent tax structure before Jenkins raised it at the chamber. She said she needs more detail about which families would qualify for the funds, what types of early education programs would be eligible and other specifics.
Nonprofit leaders said those details are still being worked out.
Walker Moore, lead organizer of Dallas Area Interfaith, said the group had its first discussion with Commissioner John Wiley Price on the concept on Monday. Price did not respond to a request for comment.
Garcia said the scope of the problem calls for a broader statewide solution, saying a child care tax should be taken up by the Legislature and featured in the current campaigns for governor rather than handled county by county.
Business groups have increasingly raised alarms, with Texas employers losing $7.59 billion in 2021 from employee absences and turnover related to child care issues, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
“This is a great idea but it should be for every Texan, not just in Dallas County,” Garcia said.
Ballot fatigue
Garcia also pointed to the timing of a possible new tax request.
Dallas ISD voters will consider a $6.2 billion bond package on May 2, the commissioners court is expected to vote on a $350 million bond package on May 19 and Elba said asking residents to vote on a child care tax in November may be an overload.
“This is not the economy to be asking people to pay more taxes,” she said.
Additional changes in early education also could shift demands.
Beginning next school year, Dallas ISD will offer universal pre-K for all 3 and 4 year olds, expanding the free model previously open only to families in certain income levels.
While Jenkins has urged other school districts in the county to follow suit, he told the Dallas Regional Chamber event attendees an exodus of 3 and 4 year olds will put extra pressure on child care facilities left to care mostly for younger children.
Because centers are required to staff more workers for infants and toddlers than pre-K-aged kids, losing older children can negate any slim margins facilities make.
Jenkins told the crowd a child care tax election is “one possibility” to address this imbalance.
After the event, Jenkins declined to answer follow-up questions about the proposed tax but said in an email “it’s in everyone’s best interest that our childcare facilities remain strong and viable.”
The issue is complicated by low pay. In 2022, the median hourly wage for early childhood education workers in Texas was $11.67, and roughly 43% of those households relied on public assistance, according to the University of California at Berkeley.
Last year, the commissioners court set aside $1 million to cover a portion of child care costs for employees at qualified businesses. The program allows business owners to receive about $1,500 per employee annually for child care costs if they also match that amount.
Officials have acknowledged that effort is not enough to fill the gap.
Moore, of Dallas Area Interfaith, said his organization began looking for ways to respond after child care struggles repeatedly surfaced during community listening sessions.
Some congregations, he said, have already shut down infant and toddler programs because rising costs made them unsustainable. He said revenue from a child care tax could be one option to make up the difference.
“Investing in our young … is such an important part of their development,” he said. “This is something we need to be considering very seriously.”
Dallas County Reporter
Tracey McManus joined The Dallas Morning News in October 2024 and covers Dallas County government. She previously spent nine years as a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times in Florida and five years as a reporter for The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia. Tracey is a 2010 graduate of the University of Florida with degrees in journalism and Spanish.
Workforce Readiness & Economic Mobility Reporter
Wilborn P. Nobles III is the workforce readiness and economic mobility reporter for The Dallas Morning News. He previously covered Atlanta City Hall for Axios and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also worked for The Baltimore Sun and The Times-Picayune. The New Orleans native is a graduate of Louisiana State University.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
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