Bill Text: NH HB1523 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishing a New Hampshire child care fund.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-02-16 - Inexpedient to Legislate: Motion Adopted Voice Vote 02/16/2022 House Journal 3 [HB1523 Detail]
Download: New_Hampshire-2022-HB1523-Introduced.html
HB 1523-FN - AS INTRODUCED
2022 SESSION
22-2810
07/05
HOUSE BILL 1523-FN
AN ACT establishing a New Hampshire child care fund.
SPONSORS: Rep. McWilliams, Merr. 27; Rep. Toll, Ches. 16; Sen. Whitley, Dist 15; Sen. Perkins Kwoka, Dist 21
COMMITTEE: Commerce and Consumer Affairs
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ANALYSIS
This bill establishes the New Hampshire child care fund and its operational requirements under the department of health and human services.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
22-2810
07/05
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Two
AN ACT establishing a New Hampshire child care fund.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Subdivision; New Hampshire Child Care Fund. Amend RSA 126-A by inserting after section 97 the following new subdivision:
New Hampshire Child Care Fund
126-A:98 New Hampshire Child Care Fund Established.
I. There is hereby established a New Hampshire child care fund which shall be administered and managed by the department of health and human services. The fund shall be a dedicated, specialized finance program designed to provide construction or startup financing for new childcare businesses and either full or supplementary funds for childcare tuition costs to an accredited childcare facility on behalf of New Hampshire children. The department shall accept into and use from the fund any gifts, grants, donations, bequests, or other moneys from any public or private source. The department shall have the authority to invest in or finance projects alone or in conjunction with other investors using moneys from the fund. The fund shall be nonlapsing and shall be continually appropriated to the commissioner of the department of health and human services for the purposes of this section.
II. To sustain operations, the department shall manage revenue from financing fees, interest, repaid loans, and other types of funding within the fund.
III. The department shall create a publicly available annual report of the fund that describes the financial activities, jobs created for child care businesses, parents and caretakers who are able to return to the workforce, and private capital mobilization metrics of the fund for the previous year.
126-A:99 New Hampshire Child Care Fund; Mandate. The department shall help the state, through the New Hampshire child care fund, provide a ready workforce by providing tuition assistance to New Hampshire children that otherwise would not be able to attend a childcare program by maximizing the value to the state for every dollar deployed by the fund, including by:
I. Providing financing support for families who meet certain income criteria;
II. Enabling communities affected by economic disparities to benefit from and afford child care and therefore catalyzing an investment in the local workforce;
III. Providing support for workers and communities affected by COVID-19 and economic loss; and
IV. Causing the rapid re-entry to the workforce of parents currently seeking assistance with child care without raising child care costs to end users, and seeking to lower costs when possible.
126-A:100 New Hampshire Child Care Fund; Operating Parameters and Programs.
I. The department may provide financing and investment services through the fund including, but not limited to:
(a) Originating, evaluating, underwriting and closing financing and investment transactions in qualified projects;
(b) Partnering with private capital providers and capital markets to attract co- investment from private banks, community development financial institutions, investors and others in order to drive new investment into under-penetrated markets, to increase the efficiency of private capital markets with respect to investing in new childcare construction and startup projects, and to increase total investment caused by the fund;
(c) Managing the fund's portfolio of assets to ensure performance and monitor risk;
(d) Ensuring appropriate debt and risk mitigation products are offered; and
(e) Overseeing prudent, non-controlling equity investments.
II. The department, through the fund, may provide capital to qualified projects in the form of:
(a) Debt financing;
(b) Credit enhancements, including loan loss reserves and loan guarantees;
(c) Aggregation and warehousing;
(d) Equity capital; and
(e) Any other financial product approved by the commissioner.
III. The department shall explore the establishment of a program, known as the child care infrastructure financing program, to provide low-interest and zero-interest loans from the fund, up to 10 years in length, to any public or private child care business or entity seeking to be licensed under RSA 170-E seeking financing for the support of child care programs to support children who meet the fund criteria.
IV. The following provisions shall govern funding prioritization and requirements:
(a) Construction and startup costs for new childcare facilities and programs, provided that the credit rating of the state of New Hampshire may be leveraged for debt financing guarantees, with assets of the fund as collateral, to support new businesses.
(b) The department shall also prioritize funds to directly pay a licensed childcare provider for families where the caretaker of the child or children are otherwise eligible to work in the New Hampshire workforce but are burdened with childcare rather than a job.
(c) The department shall ensure that 50 percent of the fund's investment activity is directed to serve vulnerable communities, which shall include:
(1) Low-income communities, defined as any geographical unit for which the United States Census Bureau publishes sample data in which 30 percent or more of the population are individuals with low income;
(2) Low-income households, defined as a household with annual income equal to, or less than, the greater of an amount equal to 80 percent of the median income of the area in which the household is located, as reported by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development; or 280 percent of the federal poverty line; and
(3) Communities of color and tribal communities, which include any geographically distinct area in which the population of color is higher than the average population of color of the state.
V. This fund shall be separate from the New Hampshire child care scholarship program, and is therefore intended to supplement, but not replace, funds for children that would otherwise be paid through the child care scholarship.
126-A:101 New Hampshire Child Care Fund; Rulemaking. The commissioner shall adopt rules under RSA 541-A relative to the administration of the New Hampshire child care fund.
2 New Subparagraph; Dedicated Funds; New Hampshire Child Care Fund. Amend RSA 6:12, I(b) by inserting after subparagraph (382) the following new subparagraph:
(383) Moneys deposited in the New Hampshire child care fund under RSA 126-A:98.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect July 1, 2022.
22-2810
Redraft 11/23/21
HB 1523-FN- FISCAL NOTE
AS INTRODUCED
AN ACT establishing a New Hampshire child care fund.
FISCAL IMPACT: [ X ] State [ ] County [ ] Local [ ] None
| Estimated Increase / (Decrease) | |||
STATE: | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 |
Appropriation | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Revenue | $0 | Indeterminable Increase | Indeterminable Increase | Indeterminable Increase |
Expenditures | $0 | Indeterminable Increase | Indeterminable Increase | Indeterminable Increase |
Funding Source: | [ X ] General [ ] Education [ ] Highway [ X ] Other - Revenue deposited into the newly created NH Child Care Fund | |||
METHODOLOGY:
This bill establishes the NH Child Care Fund, dedicated to providing supplemental funds for child care tuition costs to accredited child care facilities on behalf of NH children who utilize those facilities. The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to accept and use funds from any source, and authorizes the Department to invest in or finance projects alone or in conjunction with other investors using moneys from the fund. The bill also authorizes the Department to engage in a variety of finance and investment-related functions, including providing capital and issuing and managing loans for child care projects and providers.
The Department assumes that in order to act as a financial/investment institution as required by the bill, it will need to adhere to state and federal banking laws, and notes that the required expertise is outside the scope of the Department's normal operations. Accordingly, the Department expects compliance with relevant state and federal laws and regulations to result in an indeterminable increase in costs. These cost will be in the form of personnel, business, and IT systems, as well as expert resources needed to manage the fund's portfolio.
This bill does not contain an appropriation.
AGENCIES CONTACTED:
Department of Health and Human Services
