Marin County voters will decide next month whether to tax nearly every building in the county, from single-family homes to commercial properties, to pump millions of dollars into subsidized childcare and early education. Measure P, also known as the Marin County Child Care Initiative, would charge 5 cents per square foot of a building’s floor area for 15 years, with the money earmarked for childcare subsidies, provider pay raises and facility upgrades across the county.
The tax is projected to generate roughly $12.5 million annually, according to the 2026 Marin County Voter Guide from KQED, though a separate report from the Marin Independent Journal put the figure closer to $13 million a year. Unlike many property taxes, Measure P would be calculated using a building’s footprint rather than land size or assessed value, and the charge would be capped at the first 100,000 square feet of a property, according to KALW, which reported the maximum bill per property would top out at $5,000. For a typical owner of a 2,000-square-foot house, that works out to about $100 a year for the life of the tax, per a report from The Ark newspaper.
Where the Money Would Go
The Ark newspaper's report notes that Measure P directs its revenue to three main uses: sliding-scale tuition scholarships based on a family’s ability to pay, childcare provider training and compensation, and construction or expansion of childcare facilities. The measure would prioritize families with limited resources, including those struggling with insecure housing, and it includes a template for spending rules. Proceeds would flow into a dedicated Marin County Child Care Fund, which would be subject to annual independent financial audits, the same outlet reports.
Administration of that fund would fall to the Marin County Children and Families Commission, commonly known as First 5 Marin, which would develop a five-year plan and budget for the program. The Board of Supervisors would appoint an 11-member Child Care Community Advisory Council. The board would also approve Measure P funding each year, and administrative costs would be capped at 5% of annual revenue.
A Pricier County for Childcare
Supporters point to the cost and scarcity of licensed childcare in Marin as the driving force behind the measure. Licensed childcare in the county costs an average of $2,315 a month per child, which the Marin Independent Journal reports is 24% higher than the statewide average. Families are already competing for limited slots.
Access figures cited in the campaign vary depending on the source. KALW reported that 55% of Marin children lack access to a licensed childcare center, while the Ark newspaper's report on the measure cites a campaign argument that 52% of Marin children ages 0 to 12 with working parents lack access to licensed preschool.
Backers Include Supervisors, State Lawmakers
Measure P has drawn a lengthy list of institutional support. All five Marin County supervisors — Brian Colbert, Eric Lucan, Stephanie Moulton-Peters, Dennis Rodoni and Mary Sackett — back the measure, according to KQED's voter guide. It is also endorsed by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, state Sen. Mike McGuire, Assemblymember Damon Connolly and Marin County Superintendent of Schools John Carroll. Our Kids Our Future PAC funded Measure P, and the campaign has drawn funding from the Marin Community Foundation, the Children’s Funding Accelerator and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.
Measure P needs only a simple majority to pass rather than the two-thirds threshold required of many special taxes, a distinction that looms over this vote given Marin’s history with similar efforts. A comparable childcare tax proposal in Marin failed in November 2016 despite winning a 63% majority, falling short of the two-thirds supermajority then required, according to the Marin Independent Journal. That same year, efforts to raise local taxes for children’s services also failed in Napa and Solano counties, KQED has reported.
Opponents Question Accountability
Not everyone is on board. Lucy Dilworth, a board member of the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers, has discussed taxpayers and parents as possible payers for childcare. Opponents more broadly criticize Measure P for lacking firm spending rules and a clear way to judge whether the program works, a concern echoed in KQED's voter guide, which notes the measure comes with no clear details on how the money will be spent and no plan to measure results.
Other objections raised by Marin residents center on the measure’s 15-year term, its lack of income-based tax exemptions, and the absence of any requirement that beneficiaries actually live in Marin County. Beginning in the tax's second year, the Board of Supervisors would also have authority to raise the rate annually by the Bay Area consumer price index, a provision that has drawn additional scrutiny from skeptics of the measure's long-term cost.
Part of a Statewide Pattern
Marin’s push follows a wave of similar efforts around California and beyond. Oakland voters approved a parcel tax in 2018 to expand preschool access and help high schoolers prepare for college, and Alameda County voters approved a 0.5% sales tax in 2020 for childcare and health care aimed at the neediest young children, per KQED's reporting. Sonoma County voters backed a quarter-cent sales tax with 61% support, intended to raise about $30 million annually for childcare and mental health services for young children. Not every effort has succeeded, however — parcel tax measures to fund childcare failed in South San Francisco and Monterey County in 2022, according to EdSource. San Francisco voters approved a 2018 commercial-rent tax to fund early care and education.
The 74 Million reports that early-childhood funding measures are appearing on ballots in six states this election cycle — Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri and Texas — with Marin County joining Boulder County and St. Louis in pursuing standalone childcare tax measures. As of October, 56 communities across 12 states had voter-approved children's funds already in place, while seven localities had new funding measures on the ballot, per the same outlet, which also reports that the success of earlier measures in San Francisco, Sonoma County and Alameda County helped drive Marin’s campaign.
Measure P will not be the only tax question on Marin’s November ballot. A separate 30-year parcel tax known as Measure CC would charge property owners in the Marin Healthcare District 14 cents per square foot to fund emergency-room and intensive-care expansion, according to the Ark newspaper's report. The measures would fund different services: childcare under Measure P and emergency-room and intensive-care expansion under Measure CC.
