What Measure B Actually Buys for Child Care
A First Five Years Fund survey of likely voters found 76 percent calling child-care costs a crisis or major problem. San Diego County's Measure B, still counting, would put a permanent half-cent sales tax toward care vouchers, provider stipends, and early childhood mental health.
Midterm week put child care back inside the affordability fight.
A July survey of 1,000 likely U.S. voters for the First Five Years Fund found 76 percent calling the cost of care for families with young children a crisis or major problem. Eighty-two percent said those costs are part of the broader affordability crunch.
San Diego County asked voters to fund a local fix.
Measure B, the Protect San Diego County's Health and Safety Act, sought a permanent half-cent sales tax.
Early unofficial returns from the county Registrar showed Yes ahead: 374,267 votes, or 51.62 percent, to 350,762 No, or 48.38 percent. Hundreds of thousands of ballots were still outstanding. Certification is due by December 3.
If it holds, about 22 percent of the new revenue would go to childcare and children's healthy development, administered by First 5 San Diego. The rest of the measure funds healthcare and food aid, sewage work on the Tijuana River, and public safety.
For parents hunting an infant seat, the useful questions are smaller: what does that 22 percent buy, and who can use it?
Knowing child care is expensive is not the same as knowing whether a local tax will open a seat. Watch the share for care, who runs the vouchers, and what First 5 still has to decide.
The count, still soft
Measure B needed a simple majority. On election night it cleared that bar by a thin margin in the first Registrar dump.
Yes led by about 23,500 votes. Local reporters covering the canvass said large stacks of mail and provisional ballots were still out. A North County rundown on November 4 put counted ballots near 38 percent of the registered total.
The 51.62 percent figure is a starting line, not a finish. More updates will land before certification.
If Yes holds, the tax is permanent. There is no sunset clause. Opponents, including the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, made that a main objection during the campaign.
How the child-care money is supposed to move
The ordinance raises a half-cent sales tax and puts the revenue in a special county fund.
Proponents estimated roughly $400 million to $450 million a year, depending on taxable sales. Inside the spending plan, no more than 60 percent can go to healthcare, nutrition, and children-and-families services combined.
Of that larger pot, 22 percent is locked for childcare and children's healthy development and safety. On a $400 million year, that is about $88 million.
First 5 San Diego would administer that slice. The ordinance splits it three ways.
Licensed providers would get 8 percent as stipends, with priority for programs serving infants and toddlers. The money is meant to help pay and train staff so classrooms stay open.
Families would get another 8 percent as vouchers for care they choose: licensed centers, licensed family childcare homes, or license-exempt care. Infant and toddler care gets priority again.
The last 6 percent would fund early childhood mental and behavioral health services, including First 5's Healthy Development Services program.
Parent Voices and KPBS translated those percentages into round dollars during the campaign: about $32 million in stipends, $32 million in vouchers, and $24 million in mental and behavioral health, if the $400 million estimate lands.
Eligibility, and what the ballot left blank
Read the ordinance and you will not find a published income cap for the vouchers.
You will find priority language for infants and toddlers, a menu of allowed provider types, and a First 5 Commission charged with running the programs.
San Diego Foundation's voter guide was frank: Measure B would not guarantee a seat for every child. Access would still depend on open providers, available workers, program rules, and whether a family qualifies for support.
Those qualification rules are what parents feel first. The ballot mostly left them for later design work.
A 2022 regional study cited in local voter education put full-time center care for an infant plus a preschooler at about $33,929 a year without help. County materials have also pointed to a severe shortage of licensed infant and toddler spaces.
Voters said child-care costs are a major problem. Measure B answers with a permanent sales-tax stream for providers, parents, and early mental health. First 5 still has to write the finer eligibility after the count is done.
If you live in San Diego County and Yes holds, ask First 5 three follow-ups once the canvass firms up: when voucher applications open, which income or waitlist rules they adopt, and how infant-toddler priority works when both a toddler and a preschooler need care.