Brewer surprised me by vetoing tuition tax credit increase again

by David Safier

I'm still trying to catch up, so while this is a few days old, I want to make a comment because it's good news, and not at all what I expected.

Brewer vetoed the second attempt at hiking the private school tuition tax credits from $500 per person to $750. I predicted earlier that the fix was in and she planned to sign the revised version and say the lawmakers made it fiscally responsible. I was wrong. Not only did Brewer issue a veto. She had to toss out a 140 page bill making technical changes to get rid of it. She scolded the legislature for including the tax credit hike into what was supposed to be a clean bill. For that, and for a few other vetoes, I give Brewer a limited "Good for you." However, given all the other crapola she signed, I'll amend that to read, "It's good to know you're not totally insane like most of the Republican legislators (or maybe it's a good thing your advisors who are also business lobbyists recommended you make some Chamber of Commerce-approved vetoes)."

The true joker (as in "What a joke this guy is!") in this incident is Steve Yarbrough, who was behind the tax credit hike. Remember, every tax credit dollar that makes its way through Yarbrough's STO — the state's biggest — gets 10% taken off the top for operating expenses. A good chunk of that goes into Yarbrough's pocket. Last time I checked, his STO brought in about $13 million,which means $1.3 million stays in the organization instead of going to scholarships. So if Yarbrough manages to push through a bill that raises donations, it also boosts his profits.

Apparently, his bill had a big loophole in it. Yarbrough said he and the other STOs wouldn't use the loophole, and he'd close it next session. I guess he thinks we should trust him, even though he can't write decent legislation after all these years and he's gotten rich with the backdoor voucher tuition tax credit scam. What a joker!