Public may consider tuition tax credit issue

Rather than the Legislature pouncing into the tuition tax credits fire — again — one lawmaker would pass the hot potato to the public.

Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, is drafting a bill to put the tuition tax credits issue to a nonbinding public vote.

"This tuition tax credit is a very crucial issue that will change funding of education, and we think this question should go to the public, then the Legislature should react," Allen said Tuesday. "It's something in which everyone has a vital interest."

The draft bill would put on the 2004 presidential election ballot this question: "Should Utah's public tax dollars or potential tax dollars be used to fund private and religious education through the use of a tuition tax credit?"

The measure is nonbinding, similar to a 1989 referendum in which voters approved using $56 million in sales tax dollars to build Olympic facilities and on the condition no events would be staged in the Cottonwood canyons. The measure was nonbinding, but officials vowed to adhere to the will of the people.

Allen's comments came at Utah PTA headquarters, where the Utah Public Education Coalition of teachers, administrators and school boards gathered to denounce tuition tax credits as a raid on public school budgets.

Coalition members also pointed to choices available in the public school system, from charter schools to optional gifted and talented programs, they say are used by nearly 25 percent of public schoolchildren. Therefore, they argue, tuition tax credits are not needed.

But if they're not needed, then why fight so hard against them?

That's what Sen. Chris Buttars wants to know. "If they're right, they have nothing to worry about. Everyone will stay in public school."

The West Jordan Republican is carrying a bill for the second consecutive year to give an income tax credit for private school tuition.

Under SB34, the credit would equal up to the value of the weighted pupil unit, or WPU, the state's basic per-student funding formula, valued at $2,132. It would be available to anyone who wants to switch from a public to a private school, and to low-income parents who currently have children in private school.