SEATTLE (AP) - King County Executive Dow Constantine wants to ask voters to approve an $811 million child care levy.
Constantine’s proposal would replace a $440 million levy approved in 2015. The big hike in the new proposal, Constantine said, is due to the higher tax rate and inflation.
Constantine’s proposal, if approved by the Metropolitan King County Council, would go to voters on the August primary ballot.
The Seattle Times reports the expiring Best Starts for Kids levy, which has doled out millions of dollars to more than 400 organizations over the last five years, in an effort to foster children’s development by supporting wide-ranging early-intervention programs.
Constantine called the existing levy, “the most extensive program of its kind in America.”
As a government, he said, “we spend most of our time trying to figure out ways to deal with, react to, bad outcomes,” things like homelessness, addiction, domestic violence and incarceration.
The levy, Constantine said, seeks to head off those bad outcomes.
The new funding, Constantine said, would reduce by two-thirds the number of children under 5 who have no access to child care because their parents can’t afford it. It would provide child care for about 3,000 kids per year, Constantine said through subsidies for families and for child care workers.
The new six-year levy proposal is $0.19 per $1,000 of assessed property value. That’s an increase from $0.14 approved in 2015 and would represent $114 per year for the median King County home, Constantine’s office said.
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