SPOKANE-- Supporters of building a children’s investment fund for the city of Spokane are planning their big push for the November election.
The group wants to pass a new tax to fund early child development programs. But they know they’ll need to do a lot of work to get a new tax by the voters.
Basically this is about creating a pool of tax money to help fund a variety of programs. Supports says these types of programs the city needs, but doesn’t have enough of.
Cristy Halbert says by the time she was 12 years old she had lived with 9 different family members. But Halbert says she turned out OK thanks to early childhood education programs. Now she wants to bring more of them to Spokane. Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich is another supporter. He says Head Start got him where he is today. He says it is will worth it because children deserve it.
A group of community organizations called Spokane Alliance wants to build on programs like those. The plan is for a new tax, 35 cents per $1,000 value on your home. That money will go to early education programs, like mentoring, before and after school programs, and child abuse prevention.
But the group knows passing a new tax, even for the kids, is going to be tough but they say it will be worth it. The children’s investment fund did qualify for the November ballot. They are planning a big push to get votes.
