House lawmakers upheld Gov. Larry Rhoden’s first veto of the legislative session. The bill would have extended child care assistance to some child care employees.
The existing child care assistance program is open to families earning up to 209% of the federal poverty line. That’s roughly $67,000 dollars a year for a family of four.
Rhoden vetoed a bill to raise that eligibility benchmark for child care employees.
“I think the biggest issue with me was the fact this bill would’ve diluted that and dedicated money to a group that was 300% of poverty rather than the current group," Rhoden said during a press conference on Thursday.
In his letter to lawmakers announcing the veto, Rhoden said the alternate benchmark amounted to special treatment.
House Minority Leader Erin Healy of Sioux Falls was the bill’s prime sponsor and part of a task force that studied the issue over the past year. She argues child care workers are leaving the profession due to low wages, and that results in limited capacity for other working families.
“That’s not preferential treatment. That’s fixing a broken system," she said when lawmakers considered the veto Thursday morning. "How can we expect to recruit and retain quality child care workers when they are being priced out of the very services that they are providing?"
House lawmakers ultimately upheld the veto on a 43 to 27 vote.
The governor’s office has signaled a willingness to continue the child care policy discussion. Laura Ringling is Rhoden’s Senior Policy Advisor.
"We’ll be looking for solutions that include economic development, as well as solutions that involve the private sector coming to the table.”
Ringling says the child care task force report released in January—which was the inspiration for the vetoed bill—is a starting point for those discussions.
