FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)

Up to $31,000 is the true cost of care (see full breakdown of cost of care per seat per year based on the child care program type in the table below) in St. Louis per infant per year if you account for all the expenses associated with quality, including fair wages and benefits for educators. Closing the annual funding gap between what is currently being invested in St. Louis children ages 0-5 and what it would cost to provide truly high-quality, universal early childhood education (ECE) is $148,372,945 for St. Louis City and $433,576,000 for St. Louis County, totaling more than $580 million.

Note: School-age cost of care is based on 60% of full-time attendance, accounting for full-time during school holidays and part-time during the school year.

In 2025, Prenatal to Five Fiscal Strategies completed a cost model specifically for St. Louis. Some of the assumptions that informed the cost model included meeting licensing standards, considering MIT's living wage standards for St. Louis, updated data on non-personnel expenses such as food, utilities, rent, employer contributions to health insurance, paid sick days, paid vacation, and more.

In response to addressing this alarming gap, the Missouri Budget Project analyzed several potential sources of revenue, including property, sales, recreational marijuana, and earnings taxes, as well as local budget earmarks and Children's Services Funds. For multiple reasons, pursuing a sales tax was recommended as the most viable revenue source. Some of the other revenue sources have the following limitations:

• Recreational Marijuana: It is unclear how much revenue can be gathered from recreational marijuana taxes at the local level until court cases are resolved. It is unlikely that the amount of revenue collected through recreational marijuana will be enough to fund even a fraction of the funding gap. Earmarking this additional revenue is complex, as each locality allocates funds separately.
• New Earnings Tax: New earnings taxes have been banned.
• Local Budget Earmarks: Both St. Louis City and St. Louis County are projecting structural budget deficits, which would make it difficult to secure a new earmarked budget item.
• Children's Services Fund: State statute limits the scope of services the Children's Services Fund can support. It is unlikely that the nonprofit grants currently administered would meet even a fraction of the current funding gap.
• Property Tax: There are Hancock-related revenue limitations, and Senate Bill 190 has fueled property tax debates, framing the tax as a "burden" and tainting how receptive local voters would be to new property taxes. Additionally, the campaign commits to not getting in the way of the main local revenue stream for K-12 public schools.

The pursuit of a sales tax does not mean the campaign and its champions are in favor of regressive taxes. The pursuit of a sales tax is based on the belief that no other viable revenue stream options are currently available, according to the research conducted. And, while our original intention was to exempt groceries, we cannot legally do so.

Moreover, it is highly possible that some other effort would tap into the remaining sales tax dollars. If the sales tax is to be pursued regardless, why not use it for children? For context, the history of its use includes:

• County: 0.5 cents sales tax in 2017 for Public Safety
• County: 0.1 cents in 2018 for the Zoo
• City: 0.5 cents in 2017 for Public Safety

Lastly, research shows that every $1 invested in early childhood education can yield up to a $16 return. For example, a half-cent sales tax increase in St. Louis City would cost a family of four with a total household income of approximately $77,000 about $194.75 a year. If that same family has a child 0-5 who benefits from this sales tax by being in a high-quality ECE program, they would save thousands of dollars per year. In St. Louis City, for example, there are currently over 20,000 children ages zero to five. Imagine the financial savings that would yield for thousands of these families.

An investment in early childhood education is progressive for children, families, and our city's economy.

Potential Sliding Scale Subsidy Amounts: The subsidy amount will be determined by family income, household size, and the age of the child receiving the local subsidy.