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Texas has an amendment coming up for vote next month to allow municipalities to cut property tax on properties used for child care. Was a pleasant surprise to see real good incentives tied to a change.
I may have missed it, but did this get reversed?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> couldn’t we come up with a subsidy with less market distortion? Yes. Universal childcare. Alternatively, payment for children (as a refundable tax credit or e.g. social security payment for one's first N years).
How is universal childcare less market distorting? It seems to me that the larger the subsidy (or tariff for that matter), the more the distortion.
Setting aside the philosophical free market questions, additional government subsidy childcare seems fine. There’s a positive externality of readily available childcare: one adult to many children is more efficient than home care, and parents being able to work generates economic production, taxes, etc. But couldn’t we come up with a subsidy with less market distortion? A specific subsidy to pay for childcare for chi…
> couldn’t we come up with a subsidy with less market distortion? Yes. Universal childcare. Alternatively, payment for children (as a refundable tax credit or e.g. social security payment for one's first N years).
These are the same, just different execution. A slot for your child or children if you want to go to work, a payment if you want to stay at home to provide childcare. The care is universal, the delta being who logistically is providing the care.
Edit: Agree with y'all it is both a marketing and execution story.
Universal childcare is low-hanging fruit for America. Unfortunately, there is a vocal section (mostly married men) who want a stay-at-home mom and believe this will, similar to women entering the workforce following the advent of contraception and the civil rights movement, "force" their wives into the workplace.
Yeah childcare is a casualty in our culture war, where one side wants women to be employed for their empowerment and the other wants women to stay at home with kids. What really sucks is some European countries have already solved this dilemma by both offering childcare and paying a benefit to stay at home mothers, so parents can act in whichever way suits their individual situation. To me, this clearly benefits soci…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> couldn’t we come up with a subsidy with less market distortion? Yes. Universal childcare. Alternatively, payment for children (as a refundable tax credit or e.g. social security payment for one's first N years).
How is universal childcare less market distorting? It seems to me that the larger the subsidy (or tariff for that matter), the more the distortion.
We do not do parents who aren’t already childcare workers a favor by skewing the market for their labor. For some parents, working in childcare is the right choice, but for many it won’t be, and when you artificially inflate short term wages only if they go into childcare, everyone loses.
Texas has an amendment coming up for vote next month to allow municipalities to cut property tax on properties used for child care. Was a pleasant surprise to see real good incentives tied to a change.
Won't that only help the landlords? How many daycares own their location?
No, estimating tax burdens is more complicated than where it first falls. Depending on how competitive the retail real estate market is in an area, you would expect to find landlords competing for childcare tenants to varying degrees.
Texas has an amendment coming up for vote next month to allow municipalities to cut property tax on properties used for child care. Was a pleasant surprise to see real good incentives tied to a change.
What I think it will more be used for: "Homeschool your kids and get a tax benefit!"
Texas has an amendment coming up for vote next month to allow municipalities to cut property tax on properties used for child care. Was a pleasant surprise to see real good incentives tied to a change.
That sounds more like a way to let homeschoolers get out of property tax than it does anything that would lower the cost of childcare for workers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> couldn’t we come up with a subsidy with less market distortion? Yes. Universal childcare. Alternatively, payment for children (as a refundable tax credit or e.g. social security payment for one's first N years).
How is universal childcare less market distorting? It seems to me that the larger the subsidy (or tariff for that matter), the more the distortion.