Childcare program for Hilton Head parents who work weekends denied town funding. Why?
A program that would have offered childcare on Saturdays to Hilton Head Island hospitality workers does not qualify to receive tourism taxes, leaving parents who work in housekeeping and maintenance without childcare options on the island’s busiest turnover day.
The Children’s Center, a childcare facility on the island’s north end, applied for a $30,000 grant from the Town of Hilton Head Island’s accommodations tax fund this spring. It was one of nine applicants for more than $350,000 in grants — and the only one rejected.
The money it requested would have gone toward establishing a program to care for children on Saturdays so their parents wouldn’t have to take them to work. Currently, young children are left unattended at pools and on balconies while their parents work nearby, according to center executive director Jody Levitt.
“Cleaning staff are having to take their children with them to clean villas and clean homes on Saturdays, and there’s no place for these children to go,” she said. “These kids (need) some place safe to come, some place where they will be provided meals and get a variety of activities that are educational.”
Levitt said 15 children have signed up for the “Saturday School,” and she anticipated having at least 40 for the summer.
But on Wednesday, the town’s accommodations tax advisory committee tentatively denied grant the center applied for. The committee said the center’s program doesn’t qualify for the program and cannot be funded.
The other organizations — the Hilton Head Island Symphony Orchestra, The Lean Ensemble Theatre, the Palmetto Quilt Guild, Hilton Head Island Sea Turtle Patrol, The Coastal Discovery Museum, First Tee of the Lowcountry, The Outside Foundation and The Sandbox Children’s’ Museum — received initial support for over $350,000 in accommodations tax grants.
The Town Council will vote on the committee’s allocation decisions at its June meetings.
Childcare on turnover day is essential to an island where the lion’s share of vacations are booked from Saturday to Saturday. Starting Saturday mornings, thousands of maintenance, housekeeping and cleaning staff attend to the homes, condos and hotel rooms that need to be cleaned prior to 4 p.m. arrivals.
But few traditional childcare centers on the island are open on Saturdays, leaving parents who do these jobs at a loss.
Tourist taxes for childcare?
One of the core tenets of an accommodations tax grant is that it must be awarded to an organization that serves or attracts tourists to the island.
The accommodations tax advisory committee has denied grants before to organizations when it doesn’t see a direct link to tourism.
Levitt, who presented on behalf of the childcare program on May 19, said the center’s effect on tourists is more indirect.
“Certainly the Children’s Center does not bring tourists to our island,” she said. “We had almost 60% of our families working in the tourism industry. Mostly in restaurants, hospitality serving as cleaning folks, maintenance folks and landscaping, so we do support, very significantly, the tourism experience.”
“Because if these parents don’t have a place for their children that is safe and affordable, they will not be in the employment arena,” she added.
Still, town staff determined there isn’t a clear enough connection to tourism for the grant application to be considered under the S.C. Tourism Expenditure Review Committee’s recommendations, which require accommodations taxes go to “advertising and promotion of tourism to develop and increase tourist attendance through the generation of publicity.”
Levitt said short-term rental companies on the island originally approached her about the idea, and some have promised funding for the childcare program. Ideally, it would cost $25 per day per child for the family. Around $50 per child would be subsidized by grants and the short-term rental companies that rely on housekeeping workers.
