How much childhood well-being will $100 million buy in Whatcom County?
Community members are just starting to find out, months after voters approved Proposition 5 — a property tax amounting to $10 million a year for the next 10 years, to fund expanded child care and support for children in unstable housing situations. The goal of the Healthy Children’s Fund is to fill the child care gap in the county for youths under the age of 5, and to improve kindergarten readiness.
The ballot measure didn’t include proposals for how the money would be spent, but officials in the county Health and Community Services Department have been working behind the scenes on an implementation plan for the fund since well before Election Day.
A plan is sketched
The plan is still only an outline at this stage. County council members at a Feb. 21 meeting received a sketch of how $19.95 million in property tax receipts would be spent over the first two years of the levy:
- Subsidized child-care for cost-burdened families: $3.3 million.
- Recruitment and training for child care workers and other staff: $1.5 million.
- Wage subsidies or other wage increases for early-childhood educators: $2.05 million.
- Innovative programming for low-income and rural areas: $950,000.
- Development of regional early-learning “hubs” within the county to increase capacity and reduce costs: $4.5 million.
- Minor facility upgrades: $500,000.
The investment in so-called “capital” projects — construction and renovation of child care centers — is relatively modest in the first two years, according to the plan, because the county has already committed $8.1 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to improving child care, including $5.5 million for capital projects.
That amount includes $1 million toward the construction of a 5,000-square-foot child care center plus apartments for seniors at 1000 N. Forest St.
The above outlay only covers 64% of the total fund in the first two years. Another 27% will go toward supporting vulnerable children:
- Programs to reduce youth homelessness: $1.875 million.
- Support services for parents and caregivers: $1.875 million.
- Recruitment of behavioral health specialists for pregnant parents, children and parents with young children: $850,000.
- Increased coordination and access to behavioral health and homeless services, $757,000.
The remaining 9% will be spent on administering the fund.
A ‘unique opportunity’
The implementation plan states that 50.5% of Whatcom County kindergartners were ready to learn at that level in 2021, far short of the statewide goal of 90%. Officials estimate the countywide shortage for child care slots at 5,000, with most of the deficit in rural areas.
“This is a really unique opportunity to make an impact on our littlest in the community,” Erika Lautenbach, director of Whatcom County Health and Community Services, told the county council on Feb. 21.
Funds will prioritize communities outside Bellingham, low-income families “and community members experiencing the greatest barriers,” the plan states. Organizers will make an effort to reach out to groups that traditionally face challenges navigating government bureaucracies, including in-home care providers, people with no internet access, rural residents and other marginalized community members.
Council members will learn more about the Healthy Children’s Fund budget in their meetings on March 7. They are expected to make any changes to the implementation plan and approve it by March 21.
Council member Kathy Kershner on Feb. 21 put in an early pitch for how some of the money should be spent, knowing that better access to child care can help businesses retain employees.
“Eighty-five percent of our businesses in Whatcom County indicate that they are having staffing problems, due to, potentially, child care,” Kershner said, citing the implementation plan. She proposed funding a child care benefit, first for county employees and then, if it succeeds, for private businesses.
Whatcom County Planning and Development Services could see immediate benefits from such a program. Kershner cited a report from Planning Director Mark Personius; earlier that same day, the director said his department was 25% understaffed.
“We have a huge issue with getting people to be working in our communities, in all industries and every level,” Kershner said.
Lautenbach warned council members that few investments from the Healthy Children’s Fund will make a visible impact in the community in the first two years, given the time it will take to ramp up the programs.
Council member Todd Donovan agreed.
“The way government goes, things go slower than maybe our ambitions are,” he said.
