House Speaker Shap Smith on Thursday threw cold water on Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposal to finance expanded child-care subsidies by reducing a tax credit that benefits low-income Vermonters.
“I have reservations about it — and they’re pretty strong,” Smith said.
The proposal, which Shumlin first outlined in his second inaugural address last Thursday, was panned earlier this week by a group of Progressive and Democratic lawmakers. But until now, Smith has kept quiet about his reaction.
“The governor and I are in agreement that it’s important to put more money into child care subsidies and that it certainly will help young families — particularly single moms — in their effort to get into the workforce,” Smith said. “My question is should it be taken away from a program that encourages people to go back to work and makes work make more sense for a lot of people.”
Shumlin and his Secretary of Human Services, Doug Racine, have proposed spending $17 million to expand the availability of child-care subsidies and raise the rates the state pays to child-care providers. The program currently serves 5900 families and 8400 children and could reach 900 additional families if its funding is increased, VTDigger.org reported Thursday.
That’s a goal Smith and other lawmakers share — but they’re concerned about Shumlin’s plan to finance it: namely to cut the state’s match to the federal Earned Income Tax Credit by $17 million. That $25 million program provides a tax break — and often a lump-sum payment — to some 44,000 low-income Vermonters. The average tax credit recipient could lose $376 a year, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reported earlier this week.
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