Constitutional Amendment Questions Effect on Child Care Industry

Thursday, August 8th, 2024 -- 9:01 AM

(Madison Lammert, Appleton Post-Crescent) Wisconsin voters will soon decide whether to give the Legislature more power to choose how federal funding is spent. Some warn the decision could have consequences for the child care industry.   

According to Madison Lammert with the Appleton Post-Crescent, currently, state statute allows the governor to accept and allocate federal funds that the state receives in certain circumstances, while other cases require legislative approval of some sort.

The Aug. 13 primary ballot will carry two referendum questions that ask whether Wisconsin’s state Constitution should be amended to shift such power away from the governor.

The questions stem from Gov. Tony Evers having sole discretion over how to spend more than $3.7 billion of the $5.7 billion the state received in federal pandemic relief funding.

The proposed amendments are the latest in a series of Republican lawmakers’ attempts to change the way future federal funds are allocated. The amendments, they say, will ensure no one person will have too much power over how federal funds are spent.

However, some are raising concerns that the proposed amendments would instead concentrate too much control over federal funds in the Legislature. There are unanswered questions about the amendments, namely, the processes by which the Legislature would allocate the federal funds in question, that make it difficult to pinpoint the effects the amendments would have.

What’s not in question is that the amendments would affect how the governor could use federal funding for child care, said Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which published an analysis of the ballot questions.

Within the past few years, much of the support that Wisconsin has directed to child care has been via federal funding, specifically using pandemic relief funds. Federal pandemic relief funds used for child care were funneled to Wisconsin via two main pathways.

The first was through existing federal block grants, which have more flexible requirements and can be used for broader purposes than most other federal grants. The Legislature's Joint Committee on Finance must approve the allocation and spending of these funds.

The second method was through discretionary funding that the governor could direct without legislative approval, a power Evers, or any governor, would no longer have should the proposed amendments go through.

Child Care Counts, which directs stabilization payments to child care providers, is one of the most well-known child care supports born out of the pandemic. Since its inception, it has relied on both pathways, explained Britt Cudaback, communications director for Evers' office.

The program was set to run out of money by January 2024 as federal pandemic relief waned and Republicans declined to devote state dollars to the cause. That is, until Evers used his statutory power in fall 2023 to allocate $170 million in federal pandemic-related emergency funding to extend its life through June 30, 2025.

Opponents of the amendments argue that requiring the governor to gain legislative approval before allocating federal funds could slow getting help to those who need it.

This could be particularly critical in the case of crises, such as the pandemic, natural disasters and economic recessions. It could also affect the spending of federal funds in general, not just those related to emergencies.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.