Sitka has a childcare shortage, and the Sitka Assembly is looking at a multi-tier approach to address it. At their meeting on Sept. 8, assembly members considered a funding strategy for their plan — combining a seasonal sales tax increase with contributions from local businesses.
Joel Markis is a local parent and board president of the Betty Eliason Early Learning Center, formerly known as the Betty Eliason Child Care Center. He urged the assembly to continue looking for diverse ways to fund childcare, worrying that relying on Sitkans to vote “yes” on a seasonal tax wouldn’t be enough.
“I’m a little bit concerned that even as much of an issue as this is, and as well as we package it and put it forward to the public, what happens if the public says, ‘We don’t want to tax ourselves more because we’re tax adverse?'” he said. “It’s really hard for people to give forward and help solve that common problem, especially something like childcare, that kind of has a short time frame in which families are impacted by it.”
Earlier this year, a city-funded study found the local childcare system can serve about half of the young children who need it. In July, the assembly landed on a 1-million-dollar-a-year plan to support childcare that would combine workforce incentives, operating grants, and a family scholarship fund. But the question remained over how the community would pay for it.
The public-private partnership model would combine funding from the proposed dedicated city sales tax with contributions from local businesses. Assembly member and co-sponsor Katie Riley said business buy-in is important since the issue has been named as a barrier to economic growth and workforce retention.
“Thinking about it like that, my question is really like, ‘Okay, how is the business community showing up to help us solve this problem?’ Because I don’t want the burden of this to fall on Sitka’s year-round residents, vulnerable folks, people who are already having trouble making ends meet,” Riley said. “So how can we bring as many people into this and create as much buy-in as possible?”
Local business owner Sherri Blankenship said she would support a business contribution, and that more talks should be held with the larger business community to bring them to the table.
“As a business here in town, I can say that I would be willing definitely to volunteer $150 or whatever that fee is per employee,” she said.
The assembly ultimately decided to pursue a proposal to increase the summer sales tax by half a percent, raising it from 6 to 6.5%, with a sunset in 10 years. An ordinance will be introduced at the assembly’s Oct. 27 meeting. If the assembly gives the ordinance a thumbs up, it will go to voters in a special election, tentatively scheduled for early February.
