San Diego Rep. Sara Jacobs introduces bill to fund child care

Construction of a San Diego child care center in File photo courtesy of the city of San Diego Rep Sara Jacobs D-San Diego has introduced a bill to fund affordable child care The Leveraging Estate Gains for America s Children and Youth Act or LEGACY would cut the latest Republican spending bill s federal estate tax exemption by million and allot of the generated revenue for child care The bill authored by Jacobs whose st congressional district includes central and eastern San Diego along with La Mesa and El Cajon would essentially reverse program on the estate tax exemptions outlined in what President Donald Trump has referred to as the big beautiful bill Wealthy families like mine didn t build our wealth alone and we shouldn t hoard the benefits of success that s not only ours declared Jacobs in a message I believe it s our responsibility to fix the systems that worked for us but leave too countless people in poverty or on the edges of poverty while corporate profits and income inequality skyrocket Childcare costs vary significantly across jurisdictions According to a Department of Labor estimate in in any given county the median cost per child for paid care was anywhere from to of the median household income in that county The LEGACY Act also would amend the Internal Revenue Code of to create an Early Childhood Teaching Trust Fund through the allotment of of revenue from estate taxes A quarter of the trust will be used for stabilization grants to address the supply-side of child care according to a message by Jacob s office If the bill passes the current estate tax threshold will be lowered to almost half of what was passed in the contemporary Republican budget bill Using revenues from estate taxes to stabilize and bolster our child care system and to make it practicable to pay child care workers living wages would strengthen the child care workforce allow more moms and parents to hold jobs help kids thrive and make it viable for more of us to contribute to our communities announced Executive Director and CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner of MomsRising which supports Jacobs bill