LINCOLN- Prior to adjourning Sine Die last month, the Nebraska Legislature passed two of their biggest proposals to date to address the severe lack of affordable childcare in Nebraska. However, lawmakers steered no funding toward these new efforts, casting doubt on whether either of the new laws will have a meaningful impact on the childcare crisis.

Between 2019 and 2023, the state lost roughly 12% of its childcare providers for kids ages 5 and under. In the last week weeks of the past legislative session, two more Lincoln-based childcare centers announced they were shutting down, bringing the total to five closures in the past six months. According to some senators, it was the property tax reduction endeavor that largely stifled any bills with a projected fiscal impact, like the two relating to childcare.

"Long story short, anything that had a fiscal note attached to it either didn't make it out of committee or was reduced on the floor," said Sen. Teresa Ibach. One of the bills, LB1416, which would have established two new childcare programs before being gutted, was touted by childcare advocates as a "game-changer."

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