St. Paul voters move to even-year elections, reject child care subsidies

St. Paul voters decided they want to hold local elections in even years but balked at taxpayer-funded child care subsidies for low-income families.

Both questions were decided by wide margins. According to unofficial election results, about 60% of St. Paul voters said they wanted to choose their mayor and council members in presidential election years, while a similar percentage rejected the child care proposal.

The ballot measures were being promoted by supporters as ways to ensure more St. Paulites could fully participate in civic life. They argued the even-year election proposal would boost voter turnout and the child care subsidy would allow more low-income families to fully join the workforce or improve their education.

Election year question

Peter Butler, who promoted the election year change for years, said the city's odd-year voting resulted in only about a third of St. Paul's eligible voters going to the polls. More than 80% have regularly turned out in presidential years.

"I certainly think that higher turnout is the gold standard for elections," Butler said recently.

But City Council President Mitra Jalali, who was among a group of local and state leaders opposed to the plan, said city issues would be lost in the noise of national and statewide races. And City Council candidates, who run under the city's ranked-choice voting system, would be crowded off a packed ballot, she said.

Child care question

Jalali's group, which included state Reps. María Isa Pérez-Vega and Liz Lee, both St. Paul DFLers, urged a no vote as well on the child care proposal. Mayor Melvin Carter also recently urged a "no" vote. Carter has said the child care proposal would help only a few hundred families a year.

"Minnesotans and St. Paul residents deserve real solutions to the child care crisis that build on the historic work underway at the Legislature — not diversion of precious public funds to private companies in a lottery system with no accountability," Pérez-Vega said.

But Council Member Rebecca Noecker, one of several City Council members backing the child care proposal, said the aid could make a real difference for some of St. Paul's neediest families.

"We fill the gaps," Noecker said of money meant to augment state and federal aid. "The goal here is to be part of the solution, not the only answer."

What voters said

The proposal divided voters at First Covenant Church on the East Side.

Nic Bade, 45, who has two children, decided to support the measure, despite some hesitation. He said he spends about $22,000 a year on child care.

"It's a step in the right direction, but I don't know that it's a fix, either," he said.

David Lewis-Frazier, 35, opposed the proposal, saying he was worried it could lead to cuts in access to other public resources and perhaps not reach those who need it most.

Staff writers Jessie Van Berkel and Liz Navratil contributed to this report.