Phil Scott vetoed legislation Tuesday that would pour an additional $120 million a year into the state’s struggling child care system, but with strong tripartisan support for the measure in both the House and Senate, even the Republican governor says the bill will likely become law despite his objections.
Scott said he’s made child care a priority for the entirety of his four terms in office. And he noted at a press conference Tuesday that his own budget proposal included a $56 million increase in child care subsidies.
Lawmakers more than doubled that appropriation, however, and want to use a payroll tax on workers and businesses to fund the new spending.
“Vermont is already one of the highest taxed and least competitive states in the nation. The last thing we should be doing is making it worse,” Scott said Tuesday. “I know some headlines will probably read, ‘Scott vetoes child care.’ But I’m not vetoing child care. I’m vetoing the payroll tax.”
“This bill will be our number one priority for the veto override session, at which time we will speak loudly, in the only way that matters in the end."Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth
Scott’s veto drew swift rebukes from Democratic leaders in the House and Senate and the child care advocates who spearheaded the campaign to pass the bill.
“During his years in office, the Governor has talked about the need to expand and enrich our childcare offerings, but he has never been willing to address the problem at the scale it demands,” Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth said. “[The Legislature’s child care bill] represents an authentic, long-term solution to our child care crisis by helping parents afford care and helping caregivers afford to stay in their profession.”
Aly Richards, CEO of Let’s Grow Kids, said that child care providers across Vermont are on the verge of financial insolvency. Without a substantial infusion of new revenue, she said last month, “hundreds of programs would close if we did not make an investment in child care right now.”
On Tuesday, Richards registered her organization’s “disappointment” with Scott’s veto. But she said she’s optimistic the bill will become law when lawmakers return for an override session on June 20.
“On behalf of the tens of thousands of parents, grandparents, early childhood educators, and employers who are counting on this landmark bill to make Vermont more affordable, grow our economy and support our kids, we look forward to working with lawmakers to override this veto,” Richards said.
House Speaker Jill Krowinski said the payroll tax — to be split between employers and workers — is a worthwhile tradeoff for readier access to quality, affordable child care. According to Krowinski, the assessment would amount to less than $1 a week for a Vermonter earning the median wage.
“That is a truly significant benefit for Vermonters at a minimal cost,” she said. “This bill … would allow for increases in child care subsidies, which would provide for families to find and afford quality care while guaranteeing higher wages for early childhood educators and staff.”
The bill would infuse the child care sector with new funding primarily by increasing the subsidies the state pays to child care providers on parents’ behalf.
Right now, income eligibility for those subsidies tops out at $105,000 a year for a family of four. The legislation expands that threshold to about $172,000 for a family of four. It also increases the size of the subsidies that providers receive.
While families making more than 300% of the poverty level — $90,000 annually for a family of four — won’t see any major immediate reductions in overall child care expenses, Richards said last month that they’ll benefit from the increased revenues that will be flowing to their child care providers.
“What we’re going to see from this bill is new sustainable revenue into a field that has been starved for resources,” she said.
Lawmakers need 100 votes in the House and 20 votes in the Senate to override the veto. The bill won 118 votes in a floor vote in the House on May 12, and 24 votes in the Senate the day prior. Baruth signaled confidence Tuesday that those numbers will largely hold for the override attempt.
“This bill will be our number one priority for the veto override session, at which time we will speak loudly, in the only way that matters in the end,” he said. “We will vote to end the child care deserts in our state, and we will vote to pay child care professionals a respectable wage. Vermont's kids can't wait any longer."
The outcome of that override vote is one to which Scott has already resigned.
“They obviously have the supermajority. They have the power. They’ve proven that they can override any of my vetoes. They just have to hold people together,” Scott said. “The likelihood of them sustaining my veto is pretty slim.”
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