Families with young children could soon get help from a $3.5 million fund to help pay for daycare as the Fresno City Council plans to fund a new program and create a new commission in the upcoming budget.

While councilmembers floated the $3.5 million figure, the actual amount and how to pay for it won’t be decided until the commission makes a recommendation to the council. The program would be run in partnership with First 5 Fresno County.

On Monday, Fresno City Council Vice President Tyler Maxwell put forward the resolution creating the nine-member Commission on Family Affordability and Childcare Access.

The commission would create strategies to help families with daycare — mainly through daycare scholarships and business grants to childcare providers wanting to expand operations.

Maxwell said with Fresno County facing a looming deficit and cuts from President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, Fresno residents need help caring for their children.

He said the average family is paying $11,000 a year for daycare for a preschooler, $13,000 for a toddler, and $23,000 for an infant.

“Childcare is a crisis that we have been dealing with for some time in this community,” Maxwell said during a special meeting. “That’s going to become more exacerbated as the Donald Trump administration cuts come into effect later this year.”

Fresno Has a Supply and a Demand Problem: Maxwell

Maxwell named himself, Councilmember Annalisa Perea, and Council President Nelson Esparza to the one-year commission.

With Perea not seeking reelection, opting for a run at state assembly, and Esparza termed out, seeking a seat on the Board of Equalization, Maxwell said the commission would be well-served with possible state representation.

The three councilmembers would select six others from the community.

The commission would consider both long-term and short-term solutions to address what he called a “crisis.”

Beyond families not being able to afford childcare, Fresno also a capacity problem.

“If somehow overnight every single family was able to afford these ridiculously expensive tuitions for childcare there still would only be a fraction of slots available in the city and county of Fresno,” Maxwell said. “We’re working on both a supply and a demand issue.”

First 5 Funding Limited by Tobacco Sales

Fabiola Gonzalez, executive director of First 5, said daycare not only helps families and young children directly, but also other citizens as parents can more easily go to jobs.

She said having kids go to preschool helps set them up for traditional schooling.

“We need to start thinking of childcare as a right,” Gonzalez said. “Our children have a right to be in the right space at the right time.”

Funding for First 5 largely comes from a tobacco tax created in 1998 under Proposition 10. As smoking nationwide has decreased, so have funds.

First 5 currently operates on a budget of roughly $6 million to $7 million, Gonzalez said. The resolution limits access to the $3.5 million fund to city of Fresno families and Fresno businesses.

Considering the amount the nonprofit would receive from the city under the new resolution, Councilmember Miguel Arias said he wants the city to have a seat on the First 5 board — which is currently filled by selections made by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.

Gonzalez said she would take Arias’ ask to the board.

Could Measure P Pay for Childcare?

Where the $3.5 million will come from has yet to be determined.

Maxwell said Measure P could be a possibility, given that some of the language of the parks and arts sales tax makes allowances for youth development.

Arias jumped at that, saying that all-day childcare falls outside the scope of what voters approved. Measure P does allocate 8.5% of its funds to youth and senior activities, but ordinance language speaks to recreation and after-school programs.

“Childcare services is designed to be an all-day thing while people are at work. After-school services is different,” Arias said. “My recommendation is you look at the general fund. It’s the most flexible money, there’s no potential for violating voter-approved initiatives.”