SALT LAKE CITY — Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla has an "out of the box" idea, as she describes it, using a lot of boxes the state owns to help solve a child care crisis.
She is planning to introduce a bill to take unused space in state office buildings and place child care facilities there for state employees and even families in the community to use.
"Unused state buildings that we have all over the state," said Sen. Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City. "We’re going to pilot this right now in the Salt Lake Valley area. What we’re going to do is retrofit those buildings to create child care centers that will meet all the criteria. That will be the incentive the state will provide in a private-public partnership with the private sector."
Sen. Escamilla's legislation is designed to help address a looming child care crisis. Utah received a lot of pandemic assistance money put toward child care options. Now that it's running out? Families are facing fewer options.
"We definitely are worried about what we’re going to see in the future with child care centers closing, with staff quitting and making decisions to go other places because child care really is in market failure," said Elizabeth Garbe, the vice-president of public policy for United Way of Salt Lake. "The numbers just won’t add up, when you can make more money working at a fast food restaurant than you can at a child care facility."
Sen. Escamilla said she believed Utah could lose more child care options than other states in the country because of our high number of children. She said her legislation would require an upfront investment from the state.
"It will be in the millions but hey, we’re losing $400 million from the federal government in terms of child care. We really need to start investing in infrastructure on this," she told FOX 13 News.
Sen. Escamilla said she is still working out the details and working with state agencies that oversee facilities and child care licensing. The bill will be debated in the upcoming legislative session, but she said she believed her Republican colleagues on Utah's Capitol Hill could rally behind it.
On Thursday, at the United Way's annual legislative breakfast, legislative leadership on both sides of the aisle acknowledged child care was an issue they needed to address.
Garbe told FOX 13 News afterward the United Way of Salt Lake could support the Senate Minority Leader's legislation as it aligns with their priorities.
"We definitely think it’s an exciting idea," she said.
