In defense of Georgia’s tax-credit scholarships
This month the Wingfield household, like millions of others across America, has received a growing number of tax documents. Among them are forms certifying that we gave $50 to this charity or $100 to that one, allowing us to reduce what we owe in taxes.
What neither we nor the IRS will receive is official documentation that our church converted X number of non-believers into Christians, or that a charity we supported decreased poverty or sexual exploitation by a quantifiable amount. Or that everyone who benefited from our donations earned less than a certain amount of income.
Yet, similar bits of data are being requested of one of the kinds of non-profits we could have supported but didn’t: Georgia’s student scholarship organizations.
These SSOs accept donations from Georgia taxpayers, who can then reduce their state income taxes by an equal amount — up to a limit for all donors of about $50 million per year, or one-quarter of 1 percent of all revenues the state expects to collect this year. They then give the money to private schools, which in turn award scholarships to students.
Many claims are made about these so-called tax-credit scholarships. The most easily dismissed is that this is the state’s money.
“The United States Supreme Court ruled, clearly, that this is not tax money,” says Rep. Earl Ehrhart, the Powder Springs Republican who sponsored the 2008 bill that authorized SSOs and these tax credits. He refers to the court’s 2011 ruling in two cases involving Arizona’s tax-credit scholarships.
Indeed, the opinion authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy states: “When Arizona taxpayers choose to contribute to STOs [the equivalent of Georgia’s SSOs], they spend their own money, not money the state has collected from respondents or from other taxpayers.”
Given that ruling, it’s not clear Georgia has to report anything about donations to SSOs — any more than it should report how much Georgians give to churches, synagogues or mosques, groups that fight hunger and poverty, groups that promote the arts or conservation, or any others.
Still, Ehrhart has filed a bill this year, HB 140, that would, among other things, raise the annual cap to $80 million but require public reporting of some aggregated information about SSOs: the number and value of donations made by individuals and corporations, as well as the number and value of scholarships awarded.
That last bit of data could help prove what SSO advocates have long argued: that these scholarships actually save tax money, because the average award amount is less than what public schools spend per pupil.
Scholarship recipients’ family income is another matter. Ehrhart says the program “was never sold” as one meant to benefit only low-income students, though he argues they are bound to be the greatest beneficiaries.
“You don’t give [scholarships] to rich kids,” says Ehrhart, who serves as the unpaid head of an SSO called Faith First Georgia. “Why would you take your limited money and do that?”
And, getting back to the original point, means-testing would represent a level of scrutiny not applied to other charities and their donors.
Speaking of scrutiny, a newer complaint about tax-credit scholarships is that some private schools receiving money from SSOs have policies, for religious reasons, that prohibit gay students.
But as the Supreme Court recognized, these donations are private gifts, not public money. There is no conflict here with public discrimination policies any more than when Georgians make tax-deductible gifts to other religious entities with similar views.
Barring these tax credits based on some private schools’ faith-based guidelines for students could, however, set a precedent for attacking the tax-deductibility of all gifts to religious groups.
As for claims that some donors and private schools are finding ways to make sure contributions are earmarked for specific students, including the donors’ own children, Ehrhart points out that practice is illegal — and encourages anyone with knowledge of law-breaking by specific SSOs, donors or schools to contact their district attorney.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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293 comments Add your comment
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 31st, 2013
5:56 pm
“I want to state again, in no uncertain terms”
I don’t think too many on this blog care about your misguided opinion, mike.
SB Atl
January 31st, 2013
5:57 pm
Kyle,
Regarding your statement that if anyone has information that a parent is giving to a school for their child and then deducting it from their taxes, we should go to a prosecutor. You should also read the bill. It is not illegal. The law is intentionally vague to allow just that. Remember that legislator that was recording telling the parents to do that very thing? Of course, you will obviously forget that because it proves my point. Also, if its such an ‘open process’, why are records sealed and why is there not an accountability done to ensure what is intended is actually happening. I don’t trust ANY republican with my child’s education. I haven’t sent my child to private school. I paid out of my own pocket and didn’t ask anyone for help. I could afford to and so can others but there are a lot of parents who have no choice in the matter.
You are so biased you really just disgust my. As for Mr. Aesop’s Fables, he is really a nut case.
mike
January 31st, 2013
6:05 pm
Tiberius: once again, in the face of a logical argument, you descend into nonsense.
The counties and/or municipalities operate public school systems. Everyone who owns a home in a particular county and/or municipality is taxes to support that public school system.
If you want to send you children to a private (Christian) school, you must do that on your own dime.
Again, this scheme that Kyle describes is just a roundabout way to avoid paying local property taxes at the expense of the other taxpayers.
No amount of nonsensical arguments to the contrary can change this immutable fact.
md
January 31st, 2013
6:11 pm
“No, they want to use their taxes for their children’s private (Christian) school.”
And in a supposed free society, shouldn’t that be an option?
Geez, we are starting to sound like China…..send them to the party school, and I don’t mean UGA.
mike
January 31st, 2013
6:15 pm
OK, how about this? Since I don’t have any school-aged children, I feel like I shouldn’t have to pay school tax. In fact, I think the county should do away with their school system altogether and sell of the schools for warehouses or apartments.
Those people who have children should pay for the own child’s education in private schools. If they can’t afford it, their children will just have to do without or they would have to be “home-schooled.”
Of course, those people who make a great deal of money would be able to send their children to the very best private schools.
This way, I’m out of it. I could care less how people educate their children.
Politico
January 31st, 2013
6:47 pm
“I don’t think too many on this blog care about your misguided opinion, mike.”
yet you couldn’t help but respond………………
@@
January 31st, 2013
6:59 pm
No, they want to use their taxes for their children’s private (Christian) school.
If you want to send you children to a private (Christian) school, you must do that on your own dime.
Is the problem with the private part or the (Christian) part?
There are a lot of private schools that aren’t religion based.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 31st, 2013
7:03 pm
“If you want to send you children to a private (Christian) school, you must do that on your own dime.”
Your misguided opinion is noted and logged, mike. However, it fails the logic test as well as the common sense test. It can best be summed up as “mike doesn’t like private schools”.
“Since I don’t have any school-aged children, I feel like I shouldn’t have to pay school tax. ”
In some counties, if you are a senior citizen, that is very much the case, mike.
“I think the county should do away with their school system altogether and sell of the schools for warehouses or apartments.”
As stated earlier, the state’s constitution prohibits that practice, so your idea is not only wrong, but unconstitutional.
“Those people who have children should pay for the own child’s education in private schools.”
They do. TWICE. Once in confiscatory taxes and once out of their own pocket. When is it ever enough for you, mike?
“I could care less how people educate their children.”
Obviously not, or you wouldn’t have commented so much on how that education is funded.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 31st, 2013
7:04 pm
I see my leg-humper is still on the blog this evening. Wonder why it is that Politico can’t help but to respond to my posts except with a complete lack of substance?
md
January 31st, 2013
7:06 pm
The problem I see in the current system is the removal of relgion from the schools….and I’m a heathen.
There is no reason a system can not be set up to accommodate more than one view and should allow a choice (there’s that darn word again).
The high schools currently have different career paths one may choose to follow and I see no reason why this wouldn’t work with a highly divisive subject such as religion……the problem arises when taxpayers are forced to pay for public school but then are told what will be studied…..
Politico
January 31st, 2013
7:08 pm
“I don’t think too many on this blog care about your misguided opinion, mike.”
The little flailing fella thinks this passes for substance…..
indigo
January 31st, 2013
7:21 pm
Tiberius
I don’t like private(charter) Christians schools that teach:
1. The Earth is 6,000 years old.
2. Men and dinosaurs walked together.
3. Evolution and astronomy are liberal tools of the Devil.
4. Obama is trying to destroy Christian America.
5. The New Testament is the unquestioned word of God.
Do you?
Hillbilly D
January 31st, 2013
7:30 pm
Dusty (if you’re still around)
Thanks for the response earlier. I was just curious. It was Hiroshima that Daddy passed through, and he was Army as opposed to Navy, maybe that explains the difference. Who knows. I’ve never heard him talk about it but just very few times.
And on Washington and Hamilton, if I’d been around then, I’d have been an anti-Federalist. More of a Patrick Henry type, I am.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
7:39 pm
Speaking of worst teacher, I had a sociology professor, that called me in for counseling, because my discussion paper did not agree with his thesis that socialism was the preferred form of government.
While at HMC, I took a course called “History of the 60s”. I thought it would be a cakewalk, but the professor ended up assigning 300-400 pages of reading per week. In retrospect, I feel that I was ahead of my time insofar as the title of my term paper was “The Failure of The Great Society Programs” (this was in 1980). Though I suspect that my prof was quite liberal, he gave me a high mark. Of course, writing a term paper back then was quite different from today with the availability of the internet. You actually had to go to the library and round up armfuls of books.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
January 31st, 2013
7:53 pm
if you’re local property taxes are $2,500 and you “donate” $2,500 to one of these “student scholarship organizations” does that or does that not effectively negate your local property taxes.
Property taxes are county revenue, the $2500 is deducted from your state income tax refund. You have to pay state income tax to be able to deduct this amount. Yes, if your property taxes are $2500 and you receive a tax credit of $2500 on your state taxes, you have offset your property taxes, but why drag that in. You could just as easily say you offset your car insurance or you offset your mortgage payment for two months, or you offset your family’s dental bill, blah, blah.
Don’t understand where your property tax rant came from. Property taxes probably return more to the taxpayers than any other form of tax, a lot less is lost in the government sieve.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
7:54 pm
And, does that $2,500 less in state income tax received by state have to made up by someone else?
Again, this is not complicated. It’s simple.
mike–Although there are some fixed costs within school budgets which don’t depend on the number of students per se, the school budget as a whole is directly dependent upon the number of students within that system. As such, every student who leaves the public school system and enters private school reduces the public school’s costs directly. Therefore, it’s a wash.
Simple enough for ya??
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
January 31st, 2013
7:58 pm
I don’t like private(charter) Christians schools that teach:
Then don’t send your children there, problem solved.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
8:00 pm
More of a Patrick Henry type, I am.
I fancy myself more as the Ben Franklin type. Not terribly handsome, but a charming way with the ladies nonetheless.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
8:03 pm
HD–Got one for us old fogies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SubLzRKYuo4
“W.O.L.D.” lol.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 31st, 2013
8:11 pm
Most anything that reduces the amount of money the government gets to spend is OK with me and all other Real Americans.
indigo
January 31st, 2013
8:15 pm
Rafe – 7:58
That is not what I asked.
Hillbilly D
January 31st, 2013
8:25 pm
Bruno
Here’s one, on a different track. This is from of my favorite albums of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuN2PyQYiTc
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
January 31st, 2013
8:26 pm
Bruno beat me to it, I woulda hung out with Ben Franklin.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 31st, 2013
8:30 pm
“I don’t like private(charter) Christians schools that teach: . . . ”
Indigo, if that’s what their parents are willing to put up with (and I doubt many of those things actually occur, except in your mind), that’s still THEIR choice for THEIR children, don’t you think?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 31st, 2013
8:32 pm
Oh, and Indigo, Obama IS trying to destroy America, and he really doesn’t care if it’s Christian or not.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
8:36 pm
I don’t like private(charter) Christians schools that teach:
1. The Earth is 6,000 years old.
2. Men and dinosaurs walked together.
3. Evolution and astronomy are liberal tools of the Devil.
4. Obama is trying to destroy Christian America.
5. The New Testament is the unquestioned word of God.
indigo–I can’t claim any real familiarity with the curriculum of most Christian schools, but I would hope that none of these statements form the basis of their education. In fact, none of those statements are even based on Scripture. Nowhere in the Bible is the age of the Earth stated. The 6000 year figure is based upon a faulty genealogical reconstruction of who begat whom. Per men and dinosaurs, evolution, etc, the Creation accounts of Genesis are given in outline/story form, and were never intended to take the place of more detailed “scientific” reconstructions. If evolution is treated in a critical fashion in any of these schools, then more power to them since it is junk science at its worst. I’ll have to recheck my Bible, but I think most of the Divine Origin references are contained in the Old Testament. The New Testament is comprised of the Gospels, the Epistles and the Book of Revelation, all of whom have human authors. As for Obama destroying Christian America, you will always find some folks who beat the persecution drum within any faith/group as a rallying cry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcG47CpsU6c
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
January 31st, 2013
8:42 pm
1. The Earth is 6,000 years old.
2. Men and dinosaurs walked together.
3. Evolution and astronomy are liberal tools of the Devil.
4. Obama is trying to destroy Christian America.
5. The New Testament is the unquestioned word of God.
——————-
Name a charter school in Georgia that teaches any of the above. I am not aware of any.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
8:49 pm
Here’s one, on a different track. This is from of my favorite albums of all time.
HD–Didn’t know if you saw, but I’ve been putting this track up for the longest. It usually doesn’t draw much commentary, but I think it’s an outstanding track. I still have it on vinyl.
Great call.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
8:57 pm
Alright, got an answer through Wiki regarding Divine Inspiration claims within the Bible:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_inspiration
Turns out that Second Timothy 3:16-17 can be interpreted as conferring Divine Guidance over the whole of the Bible. Otherwise, such claims are contained in the Old Testament.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 31st, 2013
9:05 pm
As an Agnostic Constitutionalist, I’m constantly amazed at the levels of interference from both the left and the right; the former in people’s wallets, and the latter in others personal lives.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
9:05 pm
From the same summer, a song which crossed over to the country stations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0o9TyxPRU0
Hillbilly D
January 31st, 2013
9:06 pm
Bruno @ 8:49
Don’t think I have ever seen that when you posted it. I always thought it was a great album, especially the way it flows from song to song with no breaks in between. I never saw them but that’s the way they played it in concert, the whole album, straight through.
And for whatever my 2¢ is worth, according to my interpretation of the Bible, trying to calculate how old the earth is, is as pointless as trying to calculate how many people are/will be in Heaven, or when the 2nd coming will be. I’d refer people to Mark 13:32 or Matthew 24:36. People who spend time trying to calculate all that stuff are missing the point, in my opinion.
Numbers-R-US
January 31st, 2013
9:13 pm
I should get a state income tax credit for the portion of my property taxes that go to the public school system and I should be able to specify who gets the taxes.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
9:14 pm
People who spend time trying to calculate all that stuff are missing the point, in my opinion.
Might be a few more out there missing the point as well, from the snake handlers to the Prosperity Gospel ministers. To me, the real message is a pretty quiet one, which doesn’t need a lot of theatrics to get across.
ODD OWL
January 31st, 2013
9:17 pm
Just more Georgia rebel Republican skullduggery… Somwhere, somehow, someone is receiving a kickback…
Hillbilly D
January 31st, 2013
9:17 pm
Bruno
What’s now called “the Prosperity Gospel” was called “The Gospel of Money” in the 1800’s. It’s nothing new.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
January 31st, 2013
9:23 pm
“Somwhere, somehow, someone is receiving a kickback…”
And you’re willing to provide proof of this on this very forum, ODD OWL?
‘Cause if not, then all you’ve got is uninformed opinion.
Bruno
January 31st, 2013
9:28 pm
One more from the Boss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU5XVqOXFt4
Ronnie Raygun
January 31st, 2013
10:02 pm
Kyle: “Would it be all-OK for you if the Legislature simply changed it to a deduction, with a maximum allowable benefit that’s the same as the current credit?
Somehow, I think not.”
Wrong again Kyle. I wouldn’t mind if they changed it to only allow tax DEDUCTIONS for contributions to non-profit schools. Those have always been allowable.Even on the Federal level.
But since you’re in favor of giving tax credits for for-profit businesses, I guess it’d be alright if I can get a tax credit or my monthly contribution to Georgia Power.
“I think not.” Truest words you ever wrote.
AT_
January 31st, 2013
11:12 pm
I pay taxes for schools my kids don’t attend and I pay tuition for the school they do attend. I don’t have much sympathy for the argument that this is taking away money from public schools. I’m saving the state a ton of money by not sending my kids to their schools. Give me a break on my taxes since I am paying to educate my own children and yours and then we can talk.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
February 1st, 2013
12:23 am
Just more Georgia rebel Republican skullduggery… Somwhere, somehow, someone is receiving a kickback…
————————-
Solyndra executives were not Republican cronies…your failed messiah Obozo was their guy and they showed him the love big time.
ODD OWL
February 1st, 2013
1:10 am
Zionism, Christianity and Islam are religious mythology… The Deities are fictional characters… You people who attempt to literalize these holy books are so naive and guillible… Questions; Why do all the characters in the Torah and old testament have Ethiopian names ??? Abrams, Ishmael, Issac, Jacob, Israel, Saul, Solomon, David etc… The Torah was written in the 7th century A.D. in Babylon, using the worn down, degraded Babylonian, Canaanite version of the 30 letters Ethiopian alphabet… Jehovah is an Ethiopian God introduced into Arabia, Babylonia, Jordan and Canaan by Ethiopian colonizers who belonged to the Addities Danasty, the Biblical Children of Add… Centuries later, the Jehovah worshippers political power was superseded by the political power of another Ethiopian sect, the Baal worshippers who persecuted the Jehovah worshippers by sacrificing them… Babylon = City of Baal…
breakfastfor2
February 1st, 2013
3:45 am
no state money should be used for private school education. tax credit will reduce the coffers of the state treasury by the same amount. but then again, you get the government you deserve. Happy rebuilding after the tornadoes ripping through your state, and don’t come asking the feds for money to fix things either.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 1st, 2013
6:53 am
The examples point to families of four and families of five, both of which the IRS expects in its assumptions to pay a minimum of $20,000 per year for a bronze plan.
“The annual national average bronze plan premium for a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 children) is $20,000,” the regulation says.
Never mind the outrageous sticker shock, what’s the IRS doing pricing it up?
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
February 1st, 2013
7:35 am
“don’t come asking the feds for money to fix things either.”
——————-
The blue states don’t seem to be shy about demanding all taxpayers foot their bills. And whose money is it the feds are spending? If you’re suggesting the feds stop bailing out every irresponsible moocher who failed to purchase the appropriate insurance coverage, more power to you, though.
JDW
February 1st, 2013
7:52 am
@LBB…”The blue states don’t seem to be shy about demanding all taxpayers foot their bills”
Of course it is the Red States that recieve far more in federal funding than they contribute…why thats arghhhhhh….socialism!
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/26/blog-posting/red-state-socialism-graphic-says-gop-leaning-state/
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
February 1st, 2013
8:07 am
No one’s arguing that taxpayer money isn’t spent in red states too. I’m just shocked that the more highly educated, much wiser, and generally superior blue-staters are so pathetic that they need help at all. Reminds me of the French.
Do babble on though, JDW.
indigo
February 1st, 2013
8:10 am
Barry – “more highly educated, much wiser, and generally superior”
Glad to see you’re finally catching on to the difference between Democrats and Reublicans.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
February 1st, 2013
8:12 am
Highly educated, wiser, and superior folks know how to spell “Republicans”…
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
February 1st, 2013
8:54 am
The money spent in Red states is going to decrease dramatically as Obama/Hagel implement devastating defense cuts, that will affect employment at Lockheed, Boeing, and all the southern military bases.