PHOENIX — An Arizona agency that helps families with young children and child care providers is facing a funding crisis as fewer Arizonans are using tobacco.
For nearly 20 years, First Things First has been providing scholarships for families in need of quality child care and helping child care providers with training staff, curriculum, and more.
Joe Barba, the senior director of government affairs with the agency, said the agency was created by voters in 2006, deciding to use a portion of the tobacco tax to fund them.
When voters created the agency, the tax generated $165 million a year for them at the beginning. Now, their revenue is around $90 million, losing almost half its funding as fewer people are using tobacco.
“That sort of impact to the bottom line is going to drastically change the way this agency operates,” Barba said.
This could possibly lead to cuts in child care scholarships, resources, staff, and more. However, all of that has to be decided by leadership and the agency’s board.
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To help offset the decrease in funding with fewer people using tobacco, Barba and his agency hope legislators could pass a bill that could tax vaping and nicotine products and funnel that into their revenue. Barba said vaping and nicotine products didn’t enter the market until after the agency was created.
A similar bill died last session without a hearing.
“We’re looking at addressing this right now with what we feel is the most common-sense solution. I think later down the line, we should look at how can we have a less volatile funding source, but I think this is sort of step one to get us there,” Barba said.
