Suffolk bill would end day-care living wage fund

A proposal to end a Suffolk County fund chiefly aimed at helping child care providers meet the county's living wage requirements is headed for a public hearing Tuesday, even as the legislator who brought up the idea says he's open to compromise.

Legis. Tom Cilmi's legislation, introduced last month, would end the Living Wage Contingency Fund, which started in 2003 after the county created a living wage requirement for businesses that contract with the county.

Under the law, child care providers that have contracts with the county to provide services for which the county receives pass-through money from the state are required to pay their employees at least $9.25 an hour with benefits, or $10.50 without benefits. In addition, the highest-paid employee cannot make more than six times the income of the lowest paid.

This year, the county paid roughly $470,000 to six agencies that contract to provide child care for poor and working families and that receive subsidies for the service from the state, and one agency that provides senior services.

Cilmi (R-Bay Shore) said the fund has no place in an era of county belt-tightening. "Suffolk County comes along and says, 'You're doing this service and because we've decided that you should be paying your employees more, we're going to reimburse you more to do it,' " he said. "To me, that doesn't make much sense."

Some agencies, such as the nonprofit Rainbow Chimes International School for Early Education in Huntington, say they depend on the fund to meet the living wage requirement.

Rainbow Chimes executive director Katie Roche said she isn't sure how her group can continue to contract with the county if the fund vanishes; under the living wage law, she can't save money by cutting staff wages. Rainbow Chimes received $35,184 from the fund this year to supplement the wages of roughly a third of its employees.

"I pray they keep it in place. was imposed on us, and we adapted because we were convinced it was the right thing to do," Roche said.

"And we feel they shouldn't pull out this rug from under us."Cilmi said he realizes that the change would be a burden on some of the providers that receive money from the fund, and he's open to changing the legislation after the public hearing.

"I'll make it well known that I'm open to suggestions," he said. "And we'll see what comes to the table after that."