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Committee restores SGO income limits and pre-K age cap in HB 1326; proposed tax credit for public school foundations fails 4-9
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Summary
The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday amended House Bill 1326 to reinstate income eligibility limits and a pre-K age cap for Scholarship Granting Organizations, added reporting requirements, rejected a proposed tax credit for public school foundation donations 4-9, and recommitted the bill to Appropriations.
The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday amended House Bill 1326 to reinstate income eligibility limits and a pre-K age cap for Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs), added reporting requirements for SGOs, rejected a separate amendment to create a state tax credit for donations to public school foundations, and then recommitted the bill to the Appropriations Committee.
Senator Spencer Deary, who introduced the SGO-related amendments, said he offered them to "slow that down and to have a better idea for what the funding is that these schools have before we start to spend that money." Deary called Amendment 3 to restore an income threshold for SGO awards and later called Amendment 7 to restore the limit to four-year-olds and to add additional reporting requirements, including SGO account balances and details on schools receiving funds. Both amendments were accepted by consent.
Senator Shelly Yoder offered Amendment 6, which would have created a 25% state tax credit for contributions to public school foundations with limits of $1,000 per individual return, $2,000 per joint return, and a $1,000,000 cap on credits awarded statewide per fiscal year. "It provides a 25% state tax credit for contributions made to a public school foundation, and it also puts a limit on it," Yoder said, listing the caps.
The committee debated Amendment 6 at length. Supporters called the proposal conservative compared with existing caps for private-school Scholarship Granting Organizations: a supporter noted the existing SGO cap is $18,000,000 and said the public-school cap proposed was far smaller. Opponents cited budget constraints and concerns about an open-ended definition of eligible uses for donations. The roll-call vote on Amendment 6 recorded yes votes from Senator JD Ford, Senator Fadi Kadura, Senator Shelly Yoder, and Senator Andrea Hundley; no votes were recorded from Senator Brian Buchanan, Senator Stacy Donato, Senator Tyler Johnson, Senator Spencer Deary, Senator Gary Byrne, Senator Linda Rogers, Senator Daryl Schmidt, Senator Greg Goode and Senator Ratz. The chair announced the amendment failed 4 to 9.
After adopting the SGO changes and rejecting Amendment 6, Senator Deary moved to recommit HB 1326 to the Appropriations Committee. The committee voted to recommit the bill; the roll call recorded nine votes in favor and four against, and the chair announced the motion carried 9 to 4.
The amendments that passed reinstate income-eligibility limits for SGO awards, keep the pre-K cap at age 4 rather than age 3, and add reporting requirements intended to disclose SGO balances and the amounts paid to recipient schools. Committee members discussed possible future work on the public-school foundation credit language if sponsors revise the bill language.
The committee transcript does not include a fiscal estimate for the proposed tax credit, nor does it include statutory citations for the specific reporting language; committee members referenced existing SGO contribution limits in the state budget context but did not cite statute numbers on the record.
