After a lengthy battle over the future of four county-run day care programs, the Salt Lake County Council finalized its decision to shutter the facilities by the end of May.
Council members voted 8-1 Tuesday to adopt the county’s 2026 budget, draining nearly $968,000 from the day care programs.
“I believe our budget shows our values, and to me, Utah and family and children have always been synonymous,” Democratic council member Natalie Pinkney said. “And I don’t know why we’ve forgotten that.”
Overall, council members directed about $12.4 million in budget cuts across the county, allowing them to trim a property tax hike from Mayor Jenny Wilson’s proposal of nearly 20% to about 15%.
Republican council member Aimee Winder Newton said such slashes to the budget were an unprecedented feat for the council.
“We’ve been working our tails off,” she said, “trying to find those cuts.”
The new tax increase — the county’s first since 2019 — will cost the average homeowner roughly $65 a year, shaving about $22 from the mayor’s original proposal. Republican council member Carlos Moreno was the lone vote against the budget, saying he opposed the increase.
Closures sparked resistance
Ahead of the final decision to shutter the day cares in Magna, Kearns, Millcreek and Salt Lake City, dozens of residents attended public hearings, speaking in support of the centers. The facilities serve more than 250 families, offering child care at a fraction of the cost of private providers.
The council’s five-member Republican caucus initially signaled its intent to eliminate the program by the end of 2025, citing the county’s $2 million subsidy last year as a major reason to pursue the closures. It’s unfair, they contended, to force all taxpayers to keep a program with high costs and low revenue running when it benefits relatively few families.
Council Republicans relented last month, voting to delay the closures until the end of the school year while hiking tuition rates by 20% starting in January. Council Democrats voted against the motion, urging the county instead to find a partnership or alternative care for families before eliminating the centers.
Wilson’s initial budget proposal called for keeping the centers open with a 20% tuition increase to offset some of the subsidy. Later, she said, council members rejected a donor’s offer to cover the county’s 2026 day care bill while officials worked to make the programs sustainable.
Stefanie Wright, whose two daughters attend the Millcreek Activity Center for child care, said she was debating if she could make time to attend Tuesday’s council meeting until her 5-year-old daughter said, “‘Mommy, can you please do the meeting because I don’t want them to close?’”
“I say this to illustrate that we are talking about real kids, and we are talking about real families,” Wright said during public comment Tuesday. “... If the closure goes through, our community will not forget it was because of the decisions made by the five of you. We will not forget who forced hundreds of us into crisis.”
Hearing draws overflow crowd
Tuesday night’s hearing on the tax increase overflowed into the hallway of the County Government Center, with 90 residents signing up for public comment. Most showed up to oppose the increase, while some rejected council Republicans’ position that the child care cuts were necessary to counter the tax hike.
“Times are tough out there for so many people, and I don’t take tonight’s decisions lightly,” Democratic council member Suzanne Harrison said. “We have been working and scrutinizing this budget proposal for weeks, and I want you to know that I take that fiscal oversight and responsibility really seriously.”
Many people on Tuesday spoke out against the potential closure of the Tenth East Senior Center at 237 S. 1000 East in Salt Lake City.
The council will continue to fund the facility’s renovation, Winder Newton said, and has not voted to shutter the center. Instead, the panel will consider outside partnerships that could permanently fund the center.
Democrat Jiro Johnson added that although he backed the budget, he would still work on supporting his constituents who were against the cuts.
“I’m voting for this, and I don’t want you to think that that means that I’m going to shortchange our senior citizens,” he said. “I don’t want you to think that that means I’m going to stop fighting for our families that need day cares, because that’s going to be tomorrow’s fight, and that’s going to be the fight [where] we keep going until we win.”