Todd Engdahl at Ed News Colorado reported Friday on two educational tax credit bills (HB 1295 and HB 1296) being introduced in the legislature, and closed with this comment:
While the proposals could make for interesting debate, they’re expected to fail for three reasons: 1) Democrats control the legislature, 2) the education lobby, and 3) most lawmakers don’t want to fiddle with school finance or tax credits when the state budget is in the tank. [emphasis added]
The first two reasons are rather straightforward. Of course, Democrats don’t want to devolve power from the education establishment. And of course, the iron triangle of CEA, CASE and CASB would oppose the slightest effort to grant authentic private school choice to taxpaying Colorado parents.
But isn’t it ironic to think that “most lawmakers don’t want to fiddle with… tax credits,” when most lawmakers (i.e., Democrats) at the State Capitol indeed are (this very week) ramming through the “Dirty Dozen” tax credit repeals (aka tax hikes).
Both approaches effectively make more money available for Colorado state government. The difference is the tax credits Democrats currently are “fiddling with” would take more from businesses large and small, entrepreneurs, consumers and hard-working families and fill up the coffers. But the educational tax credits proposed respectively by Senator Kevin Lundberg and Representative Spencer Swalm would empower families, while leaving behind more K-12 money per student who remains in the public system.
Do you still wonder about the priorities of Colorado Democrats?
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