House rejects Senate changes to voucher tax break

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) ? A final version of a new tax break program that would give rebates for donations to voucher programs that provide tuition for students to attend private schools will be hammered out in a six-member legislative committee.

The Louisiana House refused to support a Senate change to the measure that included a $300 million annual cap on the rebates. The House voted 63-32 Thursday to send the bill to a compromise committee that will include three senators and three House members.

Whatever proposal they draft will have to come back to both the House and Senate for approval.

The bill by Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, and sought by Gov. Bobby Jindal, would give out a nearly dollar-for-dollar state tax rebate to the people and businesses who donate money to nonprofits that provide students with scholarships to attend private and parochial schools.

The nonprofit organizations doling out the private school tuition money could keep 5 percent of it for administrative costs, which could mean the tax rebates represent 95 percent of the donation.

Supporters say the tax rebate would give children in failing public schools more opportunities to get an improved education.

Opponents say it would damage public education in the state by siphoning off children to private schools. They said it could cost the state money it doesn't have in times of budget shortfalls. And they questioned whether the financial set-up devised in the bill would meet state constitutional standards.

Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite, a critic of the tax break proposal, noted that when Talbot unsuccessfully proposed something similar last year, he included a $10 million cap.

"There's a cap 30 times bigger this year than there was last year, and you're down there objecting?" Edwards said.

Talbot said he didn't think a cap was necessary, and he noted the House passed the bill without it.

"Why would we want to limit choice with a cap?" he replied.

Talbot said dollars lost to the treasury from the tax rebate would be regained in education savings because the public school funding formula would have to pay for fewer students. He said the state could save money because the private school tuition could be cheaper than the state's costs for a student in public school.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office, which analyzes the financial impact of bills, said it's impossible to ensure the tax break won't cost the state because some students who may get scholarships were never going to public schools.

To be eligible, families would have to earn less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level, the same income requirement planned for a new statewide voucher program that begins this fall and will funnel state tax dollars to private school tuition. But the tax break program wouldn't be limited to students who come from schools graded with a C, D or F in the state's accountability system, like the statewide voucher program.

The proposal would begin with donations for tuition in the 2013-14 school year. It would set caps on the scholarships to be rebated at 80 percent of the average per student payment in the public school funding formula for kindergarten through eighth-grade students and 90 percent for high school students.

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