Legislature votes to expand school tax credit program
The General Assembly voted to expand the state’s private school tax credit program Thursday night after protracted back-and-forth between supporters and opponents of the program.
Collectively, donors to student scholarship organizations would be able to claim $58 million in state tax credits. SSOs pass the money they raise on to private schools, and those private schools award the money to students making the switch from public to private school.
Donors claimed $51.5 million in tax credits in 2012.
Supporters of the program wanted to expand the tax credit pool to $65 million. Others, however, said the program has been abused and that its expansion could not be justified at a time when public school districts are struggling to cope with years of state budget cuts.
In the end, the program — which has the strong support of Gov. Nathan Deal — was not expanded as much as backers had hoped, nor was it shrunk to $50 million, as opponents wanted.
In addition to expanding the pool of tax credits, the legislation would require that private school students benefiting from the program must first have been public school students for at least six weeks. There are exceptions for students who were home schooled for at least a year, for students who can demonstrate that they’ve been verbally or physically abused in their traditional public school, and for those whose traditional public school is a low-achieving school.
— Wayne Washington
Unemployment benefits measure fails
A proposed ban on some employees such as school bus drivers to qualify for unemployment benefits failed Thursday on the last day of the 2013 legislative session.
Instead, House Bill 361 was changed back to its original intent: to allow workers to opt out at any time from automatic payroll deductions for union dues — although it exempts certain groups, including MARTA workers, teachers, law enforcement officers and firefighters.
Current law says workers must have only an annual option to opt out. HB 361 now heads to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature.
The ban on jobless benefits in the bill would have affected seasonally unemployed bus drivers and other private-sector workers whose employers contract with public-sector entities such as school systems. Supporters said it was expected to save the state up to $10 million annually.
— Kristina Torres
