"What are we, rabbits?" was the question asked during Wednesday's meeting of the San Miguel County Child Care Task Force, which is trying to come to some conclusion to that question. And, considering the number of children born, or on the way, who need childcare very soon, as in immediately if not sooner, the answer is, in a way, yes.

Toward that end, the task force, led by San Miguel County Commissioner Elaine Fischer, is getting more focused on providing the answers now. For example, much discussion this week centered around the possibility of creating a Telluride Regional Child Care Tax Initiative, which another task force member, Alan Gerstle, the county’s department of human services director, said could be built from what has already been launched in Summit County. He said money derived from the creation of a special district would go to the expansion of current child care facilities in the region, improve upon the quality and quantity of staffing and help to make it more affordable for working class parents to get the child care they need to make their lives more sustainable.

Fischer said she liked the idea of building on what already has been accomplished in Summit County.

"It took them six years," she said, to organize a plan and create a district. "I don’t want to take six years to do this."

A ballot question would need to be formulated with the appropriate details in mind to get the voters behind it.

"What is the oversight going to be, as far as the monies, the structure," asked Gerstle.

Some at the meeting wondered, considering the difficulties of getting ballot questions passed that would increase the tax burden on local businesses and residents, if there was enough political will available to draw from to get the support needed for passage.

To which Telluride Town Councilmember Andrea Benda responded, "Any public official will buy in, if the program is good, so don’t worry."

What there is to worry about are the results of a survey conducted by Bright Futures, the Early Childhood Council for San Miguel County, Ouray, Delta, and Montrose counties. Based on the survey of working families in San Miguel County, the survey determined:

* 93 percent of the families needed child care in order to be able to work;

* Of those families surveyed, 85 percent had situations where both parents work;

* The birth rate in Telluride was 87 new births, with 12 spots provided for infant care, and every center in the county has a waiting list of up to three years.

"Many families are forced to leave the area due to this crisis," the needs assessment study states. Comments from parents also included such suggestions as better pay for providers, more childcare centers with more infant/toddler spots and more after-school childcare.

Full text available at The Watch Online.