The Utah House killed a bill Thursday that would have used empty state office buildings and a partnership with child care providers to help state workers and military members get day care for their kids.
Sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, SB189 would have allowed the state to identify a property it owns that is not being utilized and not sought after by the private sector and turn the facility into a day care. The state would work with a private child care provider to care for the children and charge market-rate rent for the space. At least half the spots in the day care would be reserved for the children of state workers and members of the military or National Guard.
The idea came from the Women in the Economy Commission and was a priority of Gov. Spencer Cox, who included the program in his budget proposal for the session.
A 2023 report by the advocacy group Voices for Utah Children found that the state’s licensed child care providers at the time only met 36% of the need.
Opponents argued it wasn’t the government’s job to subsidize day care and that it would put the state in competition with private providers.
“If we have state-owned obsolete facilities, we should be selling them off or utilizing them for state-run purposes,” said Rep. Mark Strong, R-Bluffdale. “We shouldn’t be in the business of private child care.”
And Rep. Nicholeen Peck, R-Tooele, said the term “child care crisis” might apply to a mother in Kenya who, Peck said, drugs her children so she can go work to get a bowl of rice. “The term has been brought over here to the first world countries and it doesn’t mean the same thing.”
Now kids are cared for by family or friends, Peck added, but providing access to a child care facility “might inadvertently be pulling children away from home-based child care.”
But House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said it is wrong to compare Utah to a developing country.
“We live in the United States and we are this family state that we claim to be here in Utah, but we don’t want to provide a private-public partnership to ensure that our children are safe,” she said.
“If you’ve never been in a situation where you have no place to take your children it’s awful,” said Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price. “I’ve been there. And we have many, many smart, strong, hard-working women who would like to go to work, but they don’t have a place to take their children.”
The bill was voted down 22-48, killing the effort for the year.
