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State Lawmakers Talk about Childcare at Legislative Forum in Sioux City

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Lawmakers from Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota gathered this morning at Western Iowa Tech Community College for the Tri-State Legislative Forum 

Childcare and workforce retention were on the mind of many state and local leaders.  Iowa is often referred to as a childcare “desert.”  Lack of childcare can be a deal-breaker for those who want to take a job in Siouxland. 

Sioux City Democratic Representative Chris Hall said the challenge of childcare will require a number of different approaches. Hall says subsidies and tax credits are certainly part of the answer, but there will always be limited resources available.

“It is something that frankly we could have already tackled and addressed in a significant form if the bank had not been given away to the top two percent of income earners two years ago.   Tax cuts continue to rob the state from the ability to make some really foundational issues that will make the state be prosperous in the coming decade.”

Sioux City Republican representative Jacob Bossman said the House could expand the childcare tax credit, which stands an income level of 45 thousand dollars a year, to up to 90 thousand dollars. He says that would match up with what we think of as upper-middle-class today. 

This morning’s forum was organized by the Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Council

Several candidates for president are taking part in the “Local America Presidential Forum,” in Waterloo this afternoon.

Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott is joining other mayors from across the country to ask the candidates questions about their agenda in the non-partisan event.

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