The Missouri House on Thursday voted to advance a package of tax credits designed to boost access to affordable child care and stabilize the industry.
The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Brenda Shields of St. Joseph, passed with 50 Republicans and all Democrats in support.
It’s the fourth year the chamber has sent the legislation to the Senate, where it has foundered. Blocked in 2023 and 2024 by members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, it hit roadblocks from a handful of GOP senators in 2025 who argued it could penalize stay-at-home parents.
House Republicans this week said they were willing to swallow their distaste for tax credits to advance the bill, pointing to rising costs and the increasing necessity for two parents to work to pay their household bills.
Republican state Rep. Jim Murphy of St. Louis County said that he “[has] always hated tax credits.”
“I think they’re appropriations in reverse,” he said. “…Our society deserves kids who grow up in a family that isn’t struggling every day.”
The bill’s advancement follows the failure of an attempt to restore $51.5 million to the fiscal year 2027 budget for the state’s child care subsidy program, which puts state and federal funding toward the cost of day care for low-income and foster families.
Republicans’ support for Shields’ bill raised questions from some Democrats, who asked why their colleagues opposed the budget amendment but backed the tax credits, which are projected to cost $69.7 million annually.
Democratic state Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins of St. Louis reminded her House colleagues that they “had an opportunity to care about children last week when we voted on our budget.”
“You didn’t care about it last week,” Collins said. “Now we care about it this week. What is the message that we’re really sending children and their families?”
The failed budget amendment, proposed by state Rep. Betsy Fogle of Springfield, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, would have used interest generated by funds for highway improvements to fund the subsidy program at the level recommended by Gov. Mike Kehoe.
That amendment was defeated 78-60, with 13 Republicans voting in support, after House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton of Seneca said Fogle’s proposal would “jeopardize” his pursuit of a balanced, sustainable budget.
During debate on Shields’ bill, Fogle pressed Murphy to explain why he opposed her amendment but supports the tax credit package, which is expected to cost the state over $18 million more.
“But it’s not coming from general revenue,” Murphy said.
“It is a reduction of general revenue,” Fogle said.
“I just have frustrations that that investment for this body was too much somehow,” Fogle said, “and then we now have a fiscal note before us that is significantly higher, and you’re not concerned with that.”
Shields’ bill would establish three tax credits:
• Taxpayers who donate to child care providers could claim back 75% as a tax credit, up to $200,000 per year.
• Businesses with at least two employees could receive tax credits equal to 30% of their contributions to the cost of their employees’ child care.
• Child care providers could claim a tax credit equal to their employer withholding tax and up to 30% of their capital expenditures on renovating or expanding their facilities.
The bill would limit the state’s total annual expenditures on each type of credit to $20 million. Upon reaching that amount, the state could raise the cap 15% to issue credits to providers in child care deserts.
The average annual cost of child care for an infant in Missouri is $13,780, according to Child Care Aware of Missouri. For a 4-year-old, it’s $9,568.
Shields emphasized the positive economic impact the legislation could have.
“These credits are telling business organizations in our state, if you invest in the child care problem in our state, the crisis, the state will invest as well,” Shields said.
Republican state Rep. John Martin of Columbia, who voted against the bill, said Thursday that the state should instead “focus on limited government” and reducing taxes, “giving more wealth and opportunities for our families to provide for daycare.”
Last week, 13 Republicans voted in favor of Fogle’s amendment.
The proposed cut would eliminate subsidy enhancements that child care providers receive to offset costs for children in foster care or with disabilities, for being accredited or serving more than 50% children enrolled in the subsidy program. The subsidy program is open only to families that earn up to 150% of the federal poverty level, or $49,500 for a family of four.
Republican state Rep. Brian Seitz of Branson told The Independent that while tax credits would help Missourians become financially self-sufficient, the state should reduce its direct funding of child care as it nears a fiscal cliff.
“Conservatives, by and large, would want people to get off welfare, get off of the government dole,” Seitz said. “If to do that [parents] both have to work, let them receive a small amount at the end of the year as a credit.”
Republican state Rep. Colin Wellenkamp of St. Charles, who voted for Fogle’s amendment, emphasized during debate that child care gaps cost the state “lost wages, lost man hours of work and a negative impact to our economy.”
Murphy said he isn’t opposed to the restoration of child care subsidy funds, and when the Senate sends its budget to the House, he said, “I hope it’s there, and I think it will be.”
Collins told The Independent that lawmakers should “be consistent” in support of Missouri’s children.
“People want to make cuts where they want to make cuts, and they want to support what they want to support,” she said.
If the Senate restores the proposed funding cut to the subsidy program, Seitz said he’s not sure he would be in support.
“I would have to ask,” he said, “where does the money come from?”
