Washington State rolled back its plan to cut child care subsidies for the second time in six months, replacing a proposal that would have limited subsidies for new families to those meeting welfare criteria with higher co-payments.

In an effort to erase a massive budget deficit, Gov. Christine Gregoire has been cutting spending across many state programs. Washington, for example, already lowered the limit for Working Connections Child Care subsidies to families earning less than 175 percent of the federal poverty line from 200 percent, a move estimated to impact 1,112 families.

Today, the bar was expected to fall even lower. New families would have had to earn 82 percent or less of the federal poverty line – roughly $15,000 a year for a family of three – and meet other criteria of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, more commonly known as welfare, though they would have been able to keep assistance until their earnings rose above 175 percent of the poverty line.

Instead, some qualified households now will have higher co-payments, which could create hardships for struggling parents. In addition, families could find themselves on waiting lists, though the Department of Early Learning is still working out details of its new plan. (Check out available details on DEL’s blog and on its Working Connections Child Care website.

But, no families should lose their eligibility for child care subsidies, according to the Seattle-based Children’s Alliance, which saw the new proposal as a step in the right direction.

“Even parents who hold onto Working Connections may find it helps less, as they face higher co-pays. And associated programs that also make a difference for kids may be more at risk, since Working Connections comes out of the same limited funds that support the state’s welfare-to-work programs.

But no matter what happens next, the last few weeks have shown that kids have more power when we all stick up for them,” the Children’s Alliance said in a statement posted on its website yesterday.