Best Beginnings bill to expand scholarship to child care workers vetoed

Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed a bill that would have made child care workers eligible for the Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship for their own children, arguing Montana has other tools to address the shortage.

But sponsor and Rep. Jonathan Karlen, D-Missoula, said House Bill 456 offered a unique and “proven strategy” for helping to make child care more affordable and accessible.

Best Beginnings leverages federal money to help lower income, working families or parents in school to afford child care, mostly by funding providers.

HB 456 aimed to fix a conundrum in the industry — that child care workers earn wages too low to afford their own child care, but a family with a child care worker might earn too much to qualify for Best Beginnings.

In his veto letter, Gianforte said Montana already has made great strides toward increasing quality and affordable child care.

In House Bill 648 from 2023, he said, the state provided Best Beginnings with $7 million to increase access, permanently expanding income eligibility from 150% to 185% of the federal poverty level.

He also said Montana has “eliminated unnecessary red tape that burdened childcare providers across our state.”

But Gianforte said HB 456 was costly and unfair.

He said it further expanded eligibility to include child care workers with a household income of less than two times the state median income, “essentially providing a benefit to one worker to the exclusion of others.

“The bill’s expanded eligibility is projected to cost Montana taxpayers more than $21 million over the next four years,” Gianforte said.

Gianforte, a Republican, said he shares the sponsor’s aim to support “the workforce behind the workforce,” but he pointed to a separate bill, House Bill 924, as offering a tool to address the childcare shortage and “innovate the industry.”

Karlen said Friday the Best Beginnings bill had offered a strategy to recruit and retain childcare workers that was shown to be successful, and it made childcare more affordable and accessible.

In testimony during the session, Karlen had said a pilot program in Montana that granted child care workers scholarships demonstrated a 20% decrease in turnover.

In a statement Friday, he said he said he’ll continue to work to improve the industry.

“I’m disappointed in the governor’s decision to veto this bipartisan, fiscally responsible bill — and frustrated on behalf of my constituents who are struggling to afford childcare, the dedicated childcare workers who continue to earn low wages, and the Montana businesses facing serious challenges finding employees due to our state’s ongoing childcare crisis,” Karlen said.

“But this veto isn’t the end. Legislators on both sides of the aisle have made it clear they’re ready to act to make childcare more affordable, and I’ll continue to do everything I can to work with the governor to ensure every child in Montana has access to high-quality early learning opportunities.”

In a phone call, Karlen said he also supports and was a co-sponsor of House Bill 924, but the bills had different aims.

Karlen said HB 456 offered a proven method to stabilize the industry.

On the other hand, he said HB 924, to create a new, multipurpose trust fund, presents opportunities to be innovative in, for example, how to help rural areas address unique challenges with early child care, or to create a pilot program in a high cost area.

Karlen said he feels positive about HB 924 and characterized it as a way to “think two steps ahead” about what Montana might need. However, as designed, he said, a board will consider new ideas for child care through the mega trust, but support for Best Beginnings isn’t guaranteed.

He also said even adding the cost of HB 456 and HB 924 together still doesn’t come close to the cost of income tax cuts in Montana, and it’s “a little bit disingenuous to act like this is a budget breaker.”