A bill to double a state stipend for child care workers has taken a step forward in the Legislature.
During the pandemic, Maine state government used federal funds to provide a $200-a-month stipend to child care workers to help facilities stay open and retain staff. Lawmakers continued those wage supplements last year as part of the state budget.
But a proposal that received near-unanimous support in the Maine Senate on Tuesday would double that wage stipend from $200 to $400 a month.
Bill sponsor Senate President Troy Jackson says thousands of children are on waitlists across the state because there are not enough providers and workers. Jackson's bill would also allow more families to qualify for state assistance to cover child care costs.
"Maine's child care crisis demands this comprehensive response, one that supports child care professionals and working-class families and I would also say the very providers that we depend on," he says.
The bill received initial approval in the Senate on a bipartisan, 34-1 vote and now goes to the House for consideration. But the biggest hurdle could be its hefty price tag, which is more than $37 million a year. That money will have to come out of the supplemental budget now being negotiated by the Legislature's appropriations committee.
