by Rep.
Sara Jacobs
, D-San Diego, has introduced a
bill to fund affordable child care
.
The Leveraging Estate Gains for America’s Children and Youth Act, or LEGACY, would cut the recent Republican spending bill’s federal estate tax exemption by $7 million and allot 15% of the generated revenue for child care.
The bill, authored by Jacobs – whose 51st congressional district includes central and eastern San Diego, along with La Mesa and El Cajon — would essentially reverse course on the estate tax exemptions outlined in what President Donald Trump has referred to as the “big, beautiful bill.”
“Wealthy families like mine didn’t build our wealth alone, and we shouldn’t hoard the benefits of success that’s not only ours,” said Jacobs in a statement. “I believe it’s our responsibility to fix the systems that worked for us – but leave too many people in poverty or on the edges of poverty while corporate profits and income inequality skyrocket.”
Childcare costs vary significantly across jurisdictions. According to a Department of Labor estimate in 2018, in any given county, the median cost per child for paid care was anywhere from 8.0% to 19.3% of the median household income in that county.
The LEGACY Act also would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to create an Early Childhood Education Trust Fund through the allotment of 15% of revenue from estate taxes. A quarter of the trust will be used for “stabilization” grants to address the supply-side of child care, according to a statement by Jacob’s office.
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If the bill passes, the current estate tax threshold will be lowered to almost half of what was passed in the recent Republican budget bill.
“Using revenues from estate taxes to stabilize and bolster our child care system – and to make it possible to pay child care workers living wages – would strengthen the child care workforce, allow more moms and parents to hold jobs, help kids thrive and make it possible for more of us to contribute to our communities,” said
Executive Director and CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner of MomsRising, which supports Jacobs’ bill.
