Republican Senator Sam McCann (right of podium) stood with two Democrats at SEIU presser Wed
SPRINGFIELD – At a press conference held at the Capitol today by representatives of the Service Employees International Union, conservative Republican State Senator Sam McCann called on Governor Rauner to sign into law SB 730. Flanked by Democrat Senator Daniel Biss and State Rep. Litesa Wallace, Senator McCann and the SEIU reps called on funding to be restored for the state's Child Care Assistance Program.
McCann said the Senate's job is to have a conversation about public policy, and the CCAP is "a program that enables people to go to work," something McCann said everyone in the Capitol supports. McCann said child care assistance is comparable to the federal Earned Income Tax Credit for working families.
While McCann did not point fingers at Governor Rauner like the other presser participants did, he did call on the Governor to sign SB 730 into law. He's the only GOP Senator to have voted yes on the final consensus roll call on SB 730:
Senator Wallace called Governor Rauner's cutting of families from childcare assistance who were at 50 percent of the poverty income level or were attending college a "classist, sexist attack." She went on to say reinstating the child care assistance program would allow working people to "go to jobs to make profits for [Rauner's] friends."
SEIU day care workers who've taken in children whose parents have been knocked off the assistance plans spoke with reporters, as did a mother who blamed "Bruce Rauner's cuts" for now needing to pay $80 per week for child care.
SB 730 will expand child care in Illinois. The 30 minute press conference is viewable HERE.
