A state Senate committee last week approved a bill to expand at no cost a pilot program that allows counties to experiment with how to work around an quirk in the law that discourages low-income families from getting ahead financially. It is an effort that warrants support.
One of the toughest issues facing working parents – and their employers – is the cost and availability of child care. Recognizing that, the state offers the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program to help low-income families with the cost of care. Overseen by the Office of Early Childhood, part of the Colorado Department of Human Services, the program is run by individual counties, which set the levels of assistance available.
The problem the pilot program seeks to address is called the “cliff effect.” Meant to help low-income families, the assistance program includes an income limit, above which families are not eligible for aid. Hitting that limit, however, triggers a complete cessation of assistance. That means that a family can be in a position where a little bit more income will trigger a larger loss of aid, a financial “cliff.”
Research by The Bell Policy Center found that as many as one-third of families that receive Colorado Child Care Assistance Program help are worried enough about that “cliff” that they have taken steps to reduce their income. That could come in the form of not taking another job, not seeking a minor promotion or overtime, or simply working less.
The “cliff effect,” in other words, offers exactly the wrong incentive. American society wants low-income families to advance and our culture expects that they do so through work.
To counter that, in 2014 the Legislature authorized a pilot program to let counties try ways to eliminate the “cliff” by gradually withdrawing child care assistance as families income increases. It included, however, only to the first 10 counties to apply.
Senate Bill 22 will expand that to include more counties as funds allow. The idea is that doing so will let counties and the state better understand how both the assistance program and the “cliff effect” work in different areas.
La Plata County was not among the 10. If SB 22 passes the county will re-evaluate its situation, but with only a few families in a position to face the “cliff” as of 2014, county officials chose to let counties with greater need apply. And it is interesting to see which ones did.
Included are four Front Range counties, which is only to be expected, but the other six are best known as vacation destinations. One is Ouray while the others are Routt, Eagle, Grand, Summit and San Miguel. The last five are home to Steamboat Springs, Vail, Winter Park, Keystone, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge and Telluride, respectively.
That those counties feel the need to address the “cliff effect” has to say something about Colorado’s service economy. The state might look at how child care interacts with that sector as well.
SB 22 is hardly earthshaking. But it is an earnest attempt to address a glitch in a much-needed program to provide child care assistance, and with that, to ensure such aid is effective and enduring. It should be approved.
