SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (KY3) – Missouri voters on Tuesday rejected a lawmaker’s attempt to exempt child care facilities from paying a property tax.

Daycare owners in Springfield said this is another problem facing daycare centers, in addition to the subsidy issue we’ve told you about in previous reports.

Carly Walton owns and operates the Peapod Learning Center in Springfield. She said her business would have benefited greatly if Tuesday’s referendum had passed.

“I own my building, so that would have been at least $5,000 a year and we wouldn’t have had to pay property taxes,” Walton said. “And that’s for a building in Springfield that’s less than 18,500 square feet.”

Amanda Coleman is vice president of early childhood at Community Partnership of the Ozarks (CPO). CPO supports child care centers in 17 counties in southwest Missouri, and Coleman knows many of them will suffer if they don’t receive property tax relief.

“If you’re paying an average of $5,000 to $6,000 a year on your property taxes, those vendors and owners can put the money they would have saved into paying their staff,” Coleman said. This will now make it more difficult for those vendors to do that.

Walton said her daycare serves many children under the subsidy program, but she has not yet received any state payments for 2024. We have reached out to the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) for a response to these ongoing issues and are awaiting a response.

Coleman said if you are a daycare center at risk of having to close your doors, contact CPO directly for helpful resources.

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