| News | Sports | Business | Opinions | Columns | Entertainment |
| Science/Technology| Weather | Archives | E-mail Us |

Sunday, March 12, 2000

Businesses have a stake in child care

For the first time, state offers tax credit

 

The challenges faced by working parents have been big news lately.
   Last week, there were national reports about the trends of juggling kids among a network of family and friends when day care isn't available, and working opposite shifts so at least one parent can be with the kids most of the time. Both stories ran on Page One in the Caller-Times.
   Perhaps it was comforting for parents in these situations to know that they're not alone. If their experiences are like mine, it's not unusual for them to feel guilty that they're burdening a family member or friend so they can go out and work, instead of staying home with their children. Needless to say, it's not in employers' best interest for their employees to feel guilty about working for a living. Nor would it be in employers' best interest for employees to miss work or quit because of child care issues. Again, from personal experience, the last time I missed work was child care-related. Now, for the first time, the state is offering employers an incentive to step in and help.
   Monetary incentive
   As of Jan. 1, the state began offering franchise tax credits to employers who subsidize child care. The employers can start their own facility or make arrangements with an existing, accredited facility or home. The largest credit that an employer can receive is $50,000, which doesn't sound like much these days. "I don't think they're going to do it for the $50,000," says Louie Montoya, interim head of the Corpus Christi Economic Development Corp. "But when a business tries to decide how to deal with this issue, they say, 'I have people not showing up for work.' And the $50,000 helps move them closer to making the decision to do something about it. "When you think about business and you think about jobs, the two or three major inhibitors to a person getting a job are job training, transportation and child care. I'm happy to see the additional effort being made to provide incentives to business to address some of those inhibitors."
   Job benefit
   The state program is a form of economic development, said Linda Ard, chairwoman of the Human Services Department at Del Mar College. That's because if employers add child care, they'll be more attractive to prospective employees. Recruiting will improve at a time when competition for employees is fierce. Montoya doesn't quibble with Ard's assessment.
   "Economic development means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Economic development is about growth, and when you remove inhibitors to people getting jobs, you remove inhibitors to growth. So in that sense, it is."
   Ard has an ulterior motive in plugging this program. Her department trains child care workers. She's an advocate of more and better child care, delivered by better-trained, better-paid, better-respected child care workers. It's an agenda, all right, but not exactly what you'd call Machiavellian.
   There's no question that an on-site child care facility is a recruitment tool, say officials with Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial, which has had on-site care since 1976. There's no tax incentive for Christus Spohn to offer the service because the hospital system is nonprofit and therefore already tax-exempt.
   But the system's 24-hour on-site child care is a strong incentive for working parents who work non-traditional shifts. Traditional child care facilities open around 6 a.m. and close around 6 p.m., which isn't a big help for parents who work the other 12 hours in a day.
   Karen Turner, manager of the center, says she receives calls from health care workers from all over the United States and Canada about the facility. It's cited in employee surveys as a reason they stay - even as their children get older, she says.
   So far, the program hasn't received much attention. The State Comptroller's Office has mentioned it in its regular correspondence with employers and has posted the information on a Web site (www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx96_687.html).
   The Coastal Bend Workforce Development Board has commissioned a survey of employers to develop a marketing strategy that probably will be in place next month, said Michael Reyes of Idea!Worldwide, who's conducting the survey. The Chamber of Commerce hasn't promoted it yet, but probably will, says chief executive officer Tom Niskala.
   State Rep. Vilma Luna and her staff have been keeping tabs, but it's nearly impossible to gauge at this point because the first reports from employers who seek the credits aren't due until next year.
   Child care is a key welfare-to-work issue, Luna says, because the cost of child care can hinder the incentive for a single parent to work. Adequate child care also is important to South Texas' economic future, she says. "It really is an economic development issue because employers want to make sure that a labor force is available and this is a major issue for the labor force: 'Before I go out and work I've got to make sure I've got adequate child care.' "
   Ard points out that Corpus Christi has four nationally accredited child care centers and one accredited private home, compared with 61 accredited centers and 11 accredited homes in Austin.
   "This is the first time the state of Texas has recognized a way to help employers with child care expenses," Ard says. "I think there are a lot of employers who would much rather help their employees than pay taxes."
  

---

Tom Whitehurst

| Talk about this story | Home |

---

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

---

  © 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.