Mediaboss Marketing

Posted: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 2:42 pm | Updated: 5:14 pm, Wed Feb 29, 2012.

Gov. Jan Brewer signed legislation Wednesday to allow individuals to divert more money they would otherwise owe the state to instead help children attend private and parochial schools.

The new law provides a dollar-for-dollar income tax credit of up to $500 for money donated to organizations that provide scholarships to help pay the tuition and fees of students at these schools. Married couples could get a $1,000 credit.

This is in addition to an existing program that provides a tax credit of up to $503 for donations to scholarship organizations. In 2010, the most recent year figures were available, the credits the amount not paid to the state treasury totaled $43.2 million.

The measure was pushed by Sen. Rick Murphy, R-Glendale, who said he was concerned that the amount of money donated under the current program has not kept pace with requests by students to get financial help to attend private and parochial schools.

Brewer vetoed legislation last year to increase the amount individuals could donate. She said the state could not afford the loss of tax dollars.

This new law, however, was crafted to address her concerns by including a requirement that the scholarship funds could go mainly to those who initially switch from public schools. Murphy said that will save money by taking students out of public school classrooms.

That apparently was enough to convince Brewer.

This is a narrowly crafted law that will open new educational opportunities for Arizona children, said gubernatorial press aide Matthew Benson. And he said the governor, who convinced voters two years ago to temporarily hike state sales taxes to balance the budget, does not believe this new program will cut into needed revenues.

For the bulk of these children who would be moving from a public school into a private facility, the state would get some savings from that, Benson said. He estimated the actual net loss to the state in the neighborhood of a few million dollars, likely even less than that.

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New Arizona law expands tuition tax credits for private schools