Legislative Findings

The Legislature hereby makes the following findings of fact and declares its intent to be as follows: Alabama is currently attracting and creating jobs and business investments at a record-setting pace. Despite historically low unemployment rates, Alabama’s workforce participation rate ranked among the lowest in the country. One possible barrier to entering the workforce for some Alabamians is a lack of available, affordable, high-quality child care. Furthermore, the grant, and any appropriations by the Legislature in furtherance thereof, serves a public purpose by conferring a direct public benefit of a reasonably general character through the promotion of public health, safety, morals, security, prosperity, contentment, and the general welfare of the community. The grant achieves this public purpose by increasing the quality of child care to the general public, which has the effect of encouraging high-quality care and education for children and facilitating greater workforce participation throughout the state. It is the intent of the Legislature, by the passage of this article, to encourage more Alabamians to enter the workforce and gain employment by improving the quality and availability of child care options for working parents. Accordingly, future efforts to extend or reauthorize this article should be preceded by consideration of the effectiveness of this article in achieving these policy goals. To this end, once this article has had a sufficient opportunity to be implemented and its effects measured, but before extending or reauthorizing this article, the Legislature should request and examine reports from: (i) the Alabama Department of Revenue, to determine the usage of the tax credits; and (ii) the Alabama Department of Labor and the Alabama Department of Commerce, to determine the impact of the tax credits on workforce participation.