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Knoblach bill to level child care reimbursement field advances

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

 

ST. PAUL – Legislation Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, authored to mitigate disparities in child care reimbursements for multi-county cities cleared its first House committee hurdle Wednesday.

Knoblach said a lack of county-to-county uniformity for state reimbursements paid to providers for services rendered to low-income families has become problematic in cities such as St. Cloud, which is located in Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne counties. He indicated the hourly reimbursement rate in Benton County is 35 percent to 62 percent below the Stearns County rate, putting some businesses at a disadvantage and potentially creating barriers for some families seeking child care.

“The way it is now, care rates are based on a formula which looks at other rates within the county,” Knoblach said. “This is a big issue locally, where the few child cares Benton County has are mainly located far to the east of St. Cloud, where costs are less and the sample size for some reimbursement rates are very small.

“I don’t think we should be penalizing one side of town over the other when they are all effectively in the same market, sometimes just hundreds of feet apart.”

Specifically, Knoblach’s bill (H.F. 139) allows licensed day care centers that are located in a city which is in more than one county to have their subsidized day care reimbursed at the rate offered by the highest county.

Knoblach’s proposal advanced through the House Subcommittee on Childcare Access and Affordability and remains viable for enactment later this session.

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