St. Louis voters rejected a proposed half-cent sales tax Tuesday that would have raised millions of dollars annually to help families pay for child care and support early childhood education programs.
Proposition B received 47.2% of the vote, with 52.8% opposed, according to unofficial results from the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners. All 67 precincts had reported.
Supporters gathered at The Gramophone in the Grove neighborhood Tuesday night to watch election returns. The results disappointed educators, parents and community advocates who had spent months campaigning for the measure.
“It’s really a sad day, honestly, for St. Louis,” said Lisa Scheer, treasurer of Best Start for Kids STL, the campaign behind the proposal.
Proposition B was projected to generate $22.4 million annually to help families pay for child care and provide grants to early childhood education programs. Family subsidies would have been based on household income, with priority given to children in financial need. Grants to child care providers could have been used to improve educator wages, benefits and program quality.
The money would have been administered by a new board appointed by the mayor and approved by the Board of Aldermen. The proposal included requirements for annual financial reports, independent audits and public evaluations of the programs.
Tiffie Jackson, an early childhood educator at Kings and Queens Learning Center in St. Louis, said the funding would have helped parents who struggle to balance the cost of child care with the need to work.
Opponents questioned the need for another sales tax and whether the proposed oversight was sufficient. Another concern involved how much of the money would actually reach child care programs.
City Counselor Michael Garvin, who took no position on the measure, warned that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department could claim a quarter of the revenue under state law. That would have reduced the amount available for early childhood education to about $16.8 million annually.
Attorneys for the campaign disputed his interpretation, arguing that Proposition B established a dedicated fund whose money could not be diverted to other purposes.
Best Start for Kids STL, supported by WEPOWER and a coalition of parents, educators and community organizations, submitted more than 36,000 petition signatures to place the proposal on the ballot.
WEPOWER also participated in the successful 2020 campaign for Proposition R, which increased an existing city property tax to provide additional funding for early childhood services.
Charli Cooksey, founder and CEO of WEPOWER, said those who opposed Proposition B should help find other ways to address the city’s child care needs.
“Hopefully they’ll have even more solutions than they have critiques,” Cooksey said. “I hope that they wake up tomorrow, first thing, and they get to work.”