ST PAUL, Minn. — Voters in St. Paul have voted against a property tax increase that would have provided childcare at no cost to low-income families. Nearly 60% of voters voted against that increase.
Along with low-income families, other families would have seen childcare available on a sliding scale.
In the past, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter has said the measure won't work, telling KARE11 in October that, "based on my judgment, it can't be done."
"If I'm a voter, I think, if we vote yes on this, then childcare will be available in the city at no cost to low-income families," Carter said in October. "This proposal would serve an average of only 404 children per year, at a total cost of $110 million in property tax increases."
"We can't ask (St. Paul voters) to pass the largest single property tax increase that I can ever remember on the basis of making a promise that explicitly says all children, and then turn around and say, 'Oh, of the 20,000 children in our city under age five, we only meant 404 of them," he continued.
Proponents of the measure have also been steadfast in their stances on this. St. Paul city council member Rebecca Noecker spoke with KARE11 last summer about the issue.
"There's never been a claim that this would cover every single child on day one," Noecker told KARE11 back in the summer of 2023. "This is to provide low-income families with free child care, and to make it more affordable for families above that."
Mayor Carter's office said Wednesday there would be no comment after the measure failed.