With help from many advocates, a bill to improve the status of childcare in WV, HB 4191 passed the Legislature!
There is now one final hurdle to the bill becoming law: The Governor has until April 4th to do one of 3 things:
- Sign the bill into law
- Let the bill become law without his signature
- Veto the bill (A veto would effectively kill this bill unless the legislature were to reconvene and override it.)
We want the Governor to choose option 1 or 2!
ACTION:
Call the Governor’s office at 304-558-2000 or write a comment in support of signing HB 4191 on the Governor’s website here: https://wv.accessgov.com/governor/Forms/Page/submitcomment-governor/contact-governor/1
Talking Points about HB 4191:
HB 4191 helps to #solvechildcare by taking a broad approach to help families, employers and childcare workers:
- Adds tax incentives for businesses to sponsor or provide childcare for their workers. [Helps employers!]
- Requires that the state pay childcare subsidies based on the status of a child’s enrollment rather than a daily rate. This stabilizes the funding stream for childcare providers that serve lower income families. [Helps childcare providers!]
- Ensures that the government is using an accurate model to determine cost of care (right now they are paying a very low amount that doesn’t cover actual childcare costs,) when paying subsidies in the future. [Forward-looking stability!]
- Gives power to the Department of Human Services which manages state childcare funding to reduce the cliff effect that families encounter when coming off of subsidized childcare [Helps families!]