House committee tries to whitewash tuition tax credit problems

by David Safier

The other legislative committee looking into tuition tax credits and STOs met Monday. I call it "the other committee" because it was set up by Rs to counter the task force set up by Ds. The D-created task force is trying to probe tuition tax credit abuses. The R-created committee is trying to paint a big ol' happy face on the whole mess.

The Monday meeting was covered by the Trib, the Republic and the Guardian (Hello, Daily Star. The meetings may be in Phoenix, but the problem is state wide).

The committee is run with an iron fist by Rick Murphy (R-Glendale). At the end of the previous meeting, he showed the rest of the committee a powder puff questionnaire he planned to send to STOs so they could self-report on the way they hand out money. The only dissenter on the committee, Tom Chabin (D-Flagstaff), complained the questionnaire didn't ask the hard questions. He submitted some additional questions to Murphy ahead of the deadline Murphy imposed but — surprise! — they weren't included.

The powder puff answers came back, resulting in more questions than answers. And there was no way of knowing if the vague answers were even accurate, since the STOs didn't have to supply documentation.

The howler quote came from Debbie Lesko when Chabin suggested that self reporting may not be the best way to gather accurate information.

"It's insulted me that you accused STOs of lying on this survey," said Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale. "I hope you keep an open mind."

I'm planning to use the Murphy/Lesko method next year and tell the IRS I owe a total of $10.85 in taxes. I'm not going to send in any of those pesky 1040s or the forms stating my income. Trust me. That's what I owe. Remember, I'll be insulted if you accuse me of lying! And I hope you'll keep an open mind of you  ever get around to doing an audit. Works for me.

There was also a howler "expert", an econ prof for Baylor University in Texas (because I guess we don't have any econ profs at our state universities), who explained the state was saving huge amounts of money with the tuition tax credit system.

North said his analysis was based on information that was "speculative" but was reasonable enough to allow him to reach his conclusions. He was paid to conduct the study by the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative research and advocacy group that supports school choice.

More on the "expert" in another post.