Melissa Bailey Photo
Benjamin Huyssen, 3, gave two Congressmen a snack.
Congressman Chris Murphy begged a kid for a goldfish cracker, then offered him a return favor — doubling the childcare tax break for families like his.
The exchange took place Tuesday morning at Creating Kids at the Connecticut Children’s Museum, a day care center at 22 Wall St. downtown.
Murphy, who represents the 5th U.S Congressional District in the northwestern part of the state, is campaigning hard for the Democratic nomination for Connecticut’s open U.S. Senate seat. He showed up in New Haven Tuesday to promote a bill he introduced addressing the cost of childcare.
The bill would allow families earning less than $200,000 to save up to $10,000 in a tax-free flexible spending account set aside for childcare costs. Congress has allowed employers to offer those accounts since 1981; however the amount has been capped at $5,000 since 1986, according to Murphy. The Child Care Flex Spending Act of 2012, which he introduced in April, would raise the ceiling to $10,000, then increase the cap in future years to adjust for inflation according to the Consumer Price Index.
“We need to do more to help families carry this burden,” Murphy said.
Head teacher Filomena Zarra led her kids through “fairytale week.”
He also released a report his office put together outlining the cost of childcare in the state. His office polled 137 day care providers. It determined the average annual cost of full-time childcare is $11,337. That’s 17 percent of the median household income in the state, he said.
“That is back-breaking for Connecticut families,” Murphy said. “Families simply can’t afford to have one out of every five dollars” going to childcare.
Average cost by town ranged from $7,804 in New London to over $15,000 in Stamford, according to Murphy’s report. New Haven sat in the middle, at $11,281.
Click here to read the report.
Murphy said he does not have a cost estimate for his proposal. It could be paid by eliminating some tax breaks on capital gains or dividends, and by not “reauthorizing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent,” he said.
He was quick to acknowledge the bill “isn’t likely to go very far in this Congress,” but he said he wanted to build support around the idea so it can be incorporated into broader tax reform at the end of the year or early in 2013.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (pictured visiting Nick Koululias’ class of 3‑year-olds), who represents New Haven, stood behind Murphy’s proposal. Seventy percent of kids under 6 years old have both parents in the workforce, she said.
“In short, quality childcare is a fundamental cost of life for a majority” of American families, she said.
Dad Richard Cho (pictured), who works down the street at the Corporation for Supportive Housing, showed up to provide a human face to the statistics. He said he and his wife both work in the not-for-profit sector, with salaries to match. They have one child at the program, which serves 32 kids aged 5 and under.
“This is an amazing place, but it does cost a small fortune,” Cho said.
The full-day childcare costs $1,425 per month, according to director Sandy Malmquist. That’s $17,100 per year — for just one kid. Cho said he had two kids enrolled at one point; his eldest has since moved on to public school. Malmquist said half of the students have their tuition “heavily subsidized,” either through the district’s school readiness program, through the state Care For Kids subsidy, or through income-based scholarships provided by the museum.
Republican Linda McMahon, who’s expected to face Murphy in the November general election for the open U.S. Senate seat, believes there should be “no cap” on tax-free flexible spending accounts for childcare, according to spokesman Tim Murtaugh.