Evers brings child care funding campaign to Rhinelander

Hours after announcing his decision to call a special session of the state legislature for the purpose of addressing the state’s workforce challenges, including child care accessibility, Gov. Tony Evers visited children being cared for at the YMCA of the Northwoods in Rhinelander Tuesday afternoon. He received an enthusiastic welcome, even if some of the youngsters were a little unsure about who their special visitor actually was.

While the governor watched, a YMCA of the Northwoods staffer asked a group of day campers a question.

“Who is coming to visit today, does anybody know?” she asked.  

“The president!” one awestruck youngster replied.

“Governor!” another immediately corrected.

Evers visited the Rhinelander Y as part of his campaign to convince the legislature to make the pandemic-era Child Care Counts program permanent with a more than $340 million investment.

The program — which provides monthly stipends to child care facilities — is vital to ensuring parents can afford to stay in the workforce, and keep the state’s economic engine moving, while their children grow and thrive in a high-quality setting, the governor argues.

According to the Associated Press, the program has handed out approximately $600 million to more than 4,900 child care providers between March 2020 and March 2023.

“There are all sorts of good educational reasons to do it (make the program permanent) but if you think about it from workforce point of view, it is all about, if we want to have people in the workforce we’re going to have to provide the best resources to have their kids taken care of while they work,” the governor told reporters during the Rhinelander visit.

The YMCA of the Northwoods has received over $123,000 through the Child Care Counts program, funding CEO Linda May said has helped the Y provide affordable care to the children of local workers as well as competitive pay and benefits to child care workers.

“We’ve been able to keep price increases at bay and we’ve been able to offer our staff full benefits because of that support and now when that departs in January were saying to our parents you have to pick up the full burden and they’re already (spending) 20 to 30 percent of their income on child care which is unconscionable,” she said.

“When you create high prices, when your large percentage of income is based in child care, you’re asking a parent to stay at home or a person who is enjoying retirement to take on child care again and these choices don’t build a strong economic workforce,” she added.

Last month, the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee chose not to continue funding the Child Care Counts program, meaning it will come to an end in January unless legislators have a change of heart when the special session begins on Sept. 20.

While he’s well aware that the legislature has a history of gaveling in and out of special sessions without taking action, Evers noted the state has a $4 billion surplus available and he is making the case that some of those funds should be invested in programs like Child Care Counts.

“I do know that Republicans care about having a good workforce and available workforce and this will be something that if we don’t do it right we’ll have fewer people (in the workforce) and our economy will suffer,” he said. “We’re giving them a chance to come to the plate and take a whack at this and I think they’ll do it. The Democrats are on board, they (the Republicans) used to be on board. If we fail this time around it’s on them.”

According to an Associated Press report, the prospects are dim. Republicans have said they oppose the proposal because it would increase government spending rather than cut taxes.

Evers also visited child care centers in Milwaukee, Appleton and Eau Claire as part of his child care funding campaign.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].