Child care providers caught in crossfire

The state budget impasse in Sacramento is testing the limits of Bobbi Chock’s charity.

Chock, who operates a family child care home in southwest Santa Rosa, did not receive payment this month for three of the 14 children under her care.

That’s because the budget stalemate blocks payment of $3 billion in August for a variety of programs, including some child care subsidies.

“If you lost 25 percent of your pay, would that have an impact on you?” Chock asked. “When I have three that I’m not getting paid for, that’s my livelihood.”

Chock is among 214 child care providers who did not receive payment this month from the Community Child Care Council, or 4Cs, of Sonoma County, one of three agencies that administer state child care subsidies locally.

The agency was forced to take out a line of credit because of financial pressures caused by the budget impasse.

But it was not enough to cover child care provider payments.

The funds for Chock’s unpaid subsidized child care are part of almost $1.3 billion in August payments being withheld from education programs, including $435 million to community colleges.

“We cannot pay that $1.3 billion when that payment comes due Aug. 27,” said Garin Casaleggio, a spokesman for State Controller John Chiang.

Chiang has released a long list of government services and programs his office cannot legally fund until a budget is signed. Another big allocation in limbo is $580 million in Medi-Cal reimbursement for, among other things, clinics and adult day services.

“The budget delay hits our cash flow at about $500,000 a month,” said Naomi Fuchs, chief executive officer of Southwest Community Health Center in Santa Rosa. “The primary source of our revenue is Medi-Cal reimbursements for patient visits. We’re seeing the patients but we’re not getting paid.”

Fuchs said that many clinics are forced to take out low-interest loans. But she said some clinics may not have the financial ability for such a safety net.

“The state is sitting on our money while we have to borrow money with interest; they’re not paying us interest for the money they’re holding,” said Fuchs.

The other two agencies in Sonoma County that administer state child care subsidies are River to Coast Child Care Services in west county and Professional Association for Childhood Education Alternative Payment Program, or PACEAPP.

River to Coast did not receive state child care subsidies for 300 children this month. The agency was able to pay child care providers because it took out a $200,000 loan.

“Right now, that line of credit is costing us 8 percent,” said River to Coast Executive Director Donna Roper.

She said her organization will try to get the state to reimburse the interest payment on the loan. “Either it comes out of the agency or the taxpayer,” she said.

Michelle Nardone, PACEAPP’s regional director, said her agency, which operates in 25 counties in Northern and Central California, borrowed “millions” so that it could keep making payments to providers.

Nardone said the state budget woes add to a bureaucratic payment system that strains child care providers.

“We already ask providers to wait a month to be reimbursed for the child care that they’ve provided,” said Nardone. “And now we have to tell them that we don’t know when we can pay them again because we don’t know when the budget will be signed.”

At the family child care business Bobbi Chock operates out of her home on Bighorn Sheep Street, near Elsie Allen High School, Cassandra Mohr has found the ideal place for her two children.

Mohr, a single mom and waitress at a restaurant in Rohnert Park, said she doesn’t make enough money to pay for child care.

PACEAPP administers the child care subsidies for Mohr’s children. “Luckily I have Bobbi,” said Mohr. “Without her and her schedule and being so accommodating, I would probably not be able to survive.”

But, Mohr said, Chock “has to make a living too.”