TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — You can now add Travis County to the list of Texas cities and counties granting tax exemptions to eligible childcare facilities.
It’s an effort to provide a lifeline to childcare providers struggling to stay open and slightly lower the massive cost for parents.
Travis County Judge Andy Brown says it’s the cost of doing business with a growing workforce.
“If we’re going to continue having a booming economy like we do here in Travis County, we’re going to need to make sure that people can get childcare when they need it so that they can go work for Samsung, so that they can help us build the improvements to our airport, that they can work on Project Connect, work on I-35 improvements,” Brown told us on Inside Texas Politics.
The loss in property tax revenue is expected to cost Travis County around $250,000 annually, a drop in the bucket for the overall $1.4 billion budget.
The exemption is for qualifying childcare providers within the boundaries of the county and will start in the 2024 tax year.
Proposition 2 is the constitutional amendment Texas voters approved last year that allows municipalities and counties to offer the exemptions.
And with federal COVID-19 relief funding expiring later this year for childcare providers, many need whatever financial help they can get.
“There is a huge need for this. And the fact Travis County faces the highest childcare costs in the entire state, that we need to use the tools that the state gave us last session by allowing us to do this,” said Brown. “We need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make this a great economy, to help support working families, and this is a small step, but it is a step in that direction of supporting childcare centers.”
A recent policy brief by researchers at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at U-T Austin says childcare is poised to become one of the paramount policy issues facing lawmakers next session.
The researchers say the average cost for infant care in Texas is $777 per month, around $10,000 per year.
During the pandemic, Texas lost more than 25% of its childcare centers and licensed family homes and more than half of the state’s counties have since become childcare deserts, with three times as many children under the age of 5 as there are slots available.
And the study says the failure to provide adequate childcare for working families is costing the state nearly $11.5 billion annually.
“It’s a real issue. If we want to keep being competitive and attracting businesses to Travis County and filling the labor force, we need to keep thinking about how we’re going to make it easier for people to get childcare,” Brown said.
Travis County isn’t alone, as this trend spreads across Texas.
Harris County Commissioners also approved a 100% property tax exemption for childcare facilities that qualify, as did the city of Houston.
You can find similar tax exemptions in Dallas, Bexar County and a handful of other areas.
And in Travis County, they added a provision to make sure businesses that might be renting a childcare facility also see some savings in their rent.
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