Utah News Dispatch
Families of 270 children left blindsided after Salt Lake County ends daycare subsidy
(Photo by Lourdes Balduque/Getty Images)
For five years, the Millcreek Activity Center, a Salt Lake County-sponsored daycare, has been a safe haven for Lacy Walker’s family.
Like many parents, dropping off her children there in the mornings allows her to keep her job as a human resources worker. She trusts the teachers, and the kids have made friends. And, equally as important, she can afford it.
But, at pickup time on Tuesday, a daycare staff member handed her a letter informing her that Salt Lake County’s daycare programs had been terminated, scheduled to shut down at the end of the year.
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“That was the first I had heard of it. The staff seemed also in shock about it. I mean, everyone seemed very emotional and in shock,” Walker said. “We had received no prior notice, anything, that this was even up for debate.”
That notification came through just hours after the Republican-majority Salt Lake County Council voted 5-4 to end the $2 million annual subsidy that kept four centers, mostly located on the west side of Salt Lake County, afloat.
Why did the Council shut the program down?
Council member Aimee Winder Newton led a presentation during the Tuesday council meeting arguing that the county isn’t legally mandated to provide daycare — but it’s also not its role. Those who need help affording these services, she said, can apply to the Utah Department of Workforce Services’ child care stipend.
Quoting a report the county commissioned earlier this year that evaluated the child care programs in the county, Winder Newton said, “the programs face mounting operational and financial challenges. Each center operates with limited coordination, leading to inconsistencies in staffing, budgeting and service delivery.”
Rates in county-sponsored centers are 50% to 60% below market averages, she added, which forces the county to subsidize $2 million a year for about 270 children.
“I know sometimes it feels nice when you can try to help other people, but we’re not being equitable in how we’re helping people with this program,” she said. “We’ve got $6,000 to $10,000 a child subsidy that we’re giving, and it’s not helping enough kids in the valley.”
Childcare Service Analysis Salt Lake County Division of Parks & Recreation 10.29.25
Monthly rates for the program are about $200 per child, depending on ages. Walker, for example, pays $1,014 a month for her three kids aged 11, 8 and 5. Other programs she has considered would be at least twice that amount in the school year, and even more during the summer.
“I don’t see a way that we can afford it. To be honest, it’s not even ‘it’ll be tight, but we can make it work.’ We don’t have double the budget for daycare, and to also be able to afford groceries and things like that that are also getting more expensive,” Walker said.
With a two-month notice, she doesn’t have much time to save up for it either. She worries many parents are in her position and will have to forgo child care altogether.
Dozens of parents are organizing online to take action, contacting their council members and planning to attend next council meeting on Tuesday.
“I just want people to know that they’re affecting real families and real people, that we’re not just a list of names in a center, that we are real families, and this will impact us all very negatively, and we were not given a voice in this decision at any point, or any heads up that it was even up for debate,” Walker said. “So I think we just want to make sure that we’re heard.”
‘It’s mean’
The news of the termination shocked and disappointed Utah Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, who has advocated for more child care resources in the state. She said she’s actively working to find solutions to help the affected families.
“At the very moment families are losing SNAP benefits and working longer hours just to feed their children, the council’s recommendation to eliminate childcare options creates even greater barriers for working families trying simply to survive,” Escamilla said in a statement.
She added that suggesting families find other providers ignores that neighboring nonprofit providers have month-long wait lists, and they may not offer the same services.
“These centers offered more than supervision; they provided quality, affordable care with wraparound supports like transportation and meal services,” Escamilla said. “Expecting parents to find comparable care within a month is not just unrealistic, it’s mean.”
For-profit centers say they can fill the gap
Johnny Anderson, a Utah Private Child Care Association board member and president of Great Beginnings Academy — which owns nine daycare centers in the county — told the council that licensed child care centers are between 50% and 60% occupancy in the area, and they have plenty of space for any family looking to fill the gap the termination will leave.
He also highlighted that for-profit child care centers are struggling after taking several hits — first when the state implemented full-day kindergarten, and then when unlicensed home providers were allowed to have eight unrelated children in the home.
“Those of us that are in the for-profit child care business, we are paying property taxes to this county to fund county services, and of course, the county is running child care programs that compete with us,” he said. “So I think that’s worth pointing out and recognizing, as you deliberate this with that.”
However, Democratic council members expressed concern about the affordability dilemma families are about to face.
Council member Jiro Johnson said that while for-profit child care centers have the capacity to fill the gap, they aren’t really available to families that can’t afford them.
The decision also comes at the same time county leaders have proposed a nearly 20% tax property tax increase, which has drawn criticism across the valley.
Even if the state-sponsored stipend covers most of the bill for families switching child care centers, some of them may still not be able to cover even a $100 or $200 monthly increase in daycare bills.
“If we’re getting so much heat about $88 for the average family household per year,” Johnson said about the volume of public comments on the proposed tax increase, “imagine what that means to a family who now has to make similar payments per month to get child care, which may be absolutely necessary for that family to survive.”
