Minority response on tuition tax credits
State Rep. David Schapira (District 17) plans to lead a task force to investigate possible abuses in the state’s tuition tax credit program. The move was announced in a press conference called by Arizona State House Democrats and led by David Lujan, the House Democratic leader (District 15) this morning (Aug. 11). No comments yet. You can be the first!
The Democrats are also asking the federal government to investigate potential violations of federal tax regulations that may have occurred in relationship to the program.
The state representatives were responding to an investigative series by the East Valley Tribune newspaper and a similar report in The Arizona Republic last week.
The tuition tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar credit on state income tax that individual taxpayers may take for contributions to a qualifying scholarship tuition organization. Such STOs provide scholarships for students to help them defray the costs of private school tuition.
The tuition tax credit program diverts about $55 million in tax obligations from the state’s coffers to the STOs. With allegations of abuse and the state in a budget crisis, the Democrats said there was a pressing need to examine the program to determine what could be done to prevent abuse and better oversee it.
The newspaper stories both pointed out that the program as a whole had failed to increase access to private schools for underprivileged students, which was one of the original selling points for the legislation when it was passed by the State Legislature more than a decade ago.
The Tribune series, in particular, detailed potential abuses of federal tax law that may be swirling around the program and the lack of state resources to oversee the program, which means that STOs and the schools that get funding from them are essentially self-policing.
Spurred by Lujan’s steadfast contention that this was not a partisan issue, one reporter at the press conference pounded the Democrats mercilessly, asking why they had not asked Speaker of the House Kirk Adams (R-District 19) to launch an official investigation by a House committee.
Lujan responded that when Democrats, the minority party in the Legislature, had sought legislation for “accountability and oversight” in the tuition tax credit program in the past the House leadership had been unresponsive. So, instead, they took their concerns public and invited concerned Republicans to join a task force that the Democrats hope will be composed of five from their party and five from the GOP. “This was an opportunity where we could take the lead,” Lujan said.
Essentially, the task force will seek public testimony as a legislative committee would do and seek to offer legislation in the next legislative session that is scheduled to begin in January.
That’s if, as one wag noted, the current special session to pass a budget ever ends.
11 Aug, 2009 >