An Aha moment

by David Safier

Yesterday I wrote about a proposed 50% increase in the amount each person can give as a private school tuition tax credit. (Note, by the way, the bill doesn't offer a similar increase in the public school tax credit, which is already less than half the private school amount.) But I also mused about another part of the same legislation which looked like it opened the corporate tuition tax credit — a separate way to give money for private school tuition — to makers and distributers of alcohol.

Now I know what's going on.

In the East Valley Trib, Tom Patterson has a column pushing tuition tax credits as great educational reform. Money for public schools, apparently, is money wasted. He has this telling passage about corporate tax credits.

There is a global cap of 20 million dollars annually, of which 11 million remains available. Another 4.7 million in tax credits is still available under a similar program dedicated to special needs children.

Ah, I see. Corporations aren't stepping forward to give to the program, so the idea is to widen it so beer distributers like, oh, say, the McCain family business, can give. That's how I'm reading this.

Left out of the column is the fact that 10% comes off the top of all this money that's supposed to help kids go to private schools. $25 million is $2.5 million for the STOs who administrate the program — far more than it could possibly take to perform such a simple transaction. I'm looking at you, Steve Yarbrough.