By Joe Ragusa

BLOOMINGTON – The SEIU Healthcare Illinois union is pushing state officials to increase funding to child care providers.

About a dozen union members testified during a public hearing in Bloomington Tuesday.

Child care provider and SEIU Healthcare Illinois union member Sharon Norwood has a problem with the fact the plan only funds child care assistance for families earning up to 162 percent of the poverty level.

“Which does not cover all children,” Norwood said. “With it being 162 percent, 50,000 school children have been left out of the program.”

Norwood said the state can afford it, too, if the state changes it’s tax structure.

“The state is not broke. The one percent need to pay their fair share in taxes,” Norwood said.

The union wants the state to expand eligibility for support and increase the minimum wage for child care workers to $15 dollars an hour.

SEIU Vice President Brynn Seibert said the two public hearings Tuesday in Bloomington are the only ones across the state on the proposed child care funding plan for the next two years.

Details of the proposed plan can be found on the Department of Human Service’s website. Written comments will be accepted until Feb. 23.

Officials with the State Department of Human Services declined to comment about the plan and initially, they refused to let reporters into the building for the hearing.

Joe Ragusa can be reached at [email protected].