Childcare

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Late last year, the Salt Lake County Council found itself staring down a budget crunch and floated a nearly 20 percent property tax hike to close the gap. Instead of asking the wealthiest to carry their share, the GOP majority on the council reached for the same tired playbook: program cuts that hit working families first in order to lower the tax increase.

At the top of that list? The GOP majority on the council decided to shut down county-run daycare centers. A move that might balance a spreadsheet, but leaves parents scrambling and kids behind. The backlash was swift and justified.

In an attempt at damage control, those GOP members of the County Council have attempted to walk back their cuts (kind of) and presented what is called “legislative intent” to explore ways to keep the daycare options - and more - without taxpayer funding.

“Legislative Intent” is a government way of saying “Let’s look into this idea and see if we can make it work and how to make it work. Is it feasible?”

Well, at the March 24 County Council meeting, the Parks and Rec Department presented the findings of those explorations. Without getting too into the weeds, here’s what they came up with and what they’re proposing and not proposing.

Most notably, the Salt Lake County Council - with a 5-4 GOP majority and voting power - is not bringing back the very popular subsidized daycare programs they have already determined to eliminate. 

That would require the GOP caucus admitting they were wrong. 

The Democratic Caucus on the County Council, on the other hand, is still the minority and must play nice to get other important work done and can’t too vocally call it out this way - that’s politics on a municipal level.

Instead, Parks and Rec will work to partner with outside childcare providers to possibly lease the space and continue these services but not use county dollars in doing so.

That’s a good first step in undoing the damage and uncertainty created when the closures were announced. But it should not be the last step. The stated objective of the Parks and Rec legislative intent study is to “preserve childcare access for low-income and vulnerable families.” 

When elected in November, I will join with the new majority on the County Council to restore and expand these critical service opportunities to families in need across Salt Lake County.

As a workaround, the County Council asked Parks and Rec to explore enhancing summer camp programs in 2026 to fill gaps when kids are not in school - hoping this would help plug the holes created by the impending daycare closures. The problem is, the summer camps proposed will not include children younger than five years old.

That means families with toddlers and infants - which comprise the bulk of the daycare enrollments - won’t benefit from these programs and will be left searching for increasingly hard-to-find spots in commercial childcare facilities.

Come May 31, when the county officially pulls the plug on the daycare programs, these families will be hurt significantly.

We can do better for Salt Lake County’s at-risk communities. With a Democratic majority on the Salt Lake County Council we will do better.