Republicans in Kansas always have a good plan—well, a good plan if you have more than $500,000 you don’t want to see taxed. This year, Kansas HB 2048—brought to the table by state Rep. Adam Thomas—offers a new twist to Kansas residents who’ve got a lot of money and taxes to dodge: Commit that money to a charity that funds private education and we’ll give you a pass on paying state taxes.
Seriously.
Here’s the relevant text:
As the Kansas Reflector explains:
The tax credit currently allows organizations and taxpayers to write off 70% of scholarships they provide to private schools, with a maximum allowable credit of $500,000 per year. HB2048 would expand student eligibility for the program and allow a 100% tax write-off.
...
Critics said the legislation would harm Kansas students and serve special interest groups by incentivizing the privatization of Kansas education, ultimately taking funds away from Kansas public schools.
RELATED STORY: From 'critical race theory' to 'grooming,' the real Republican agenda is ending public education
At least one of Kansas’ Democrats, state Rep. Mari-Lynn Poskin, was just not having it.
Campaign Action
“Holy tax scams, that is a masterful shell game” declared Poskin while debating the bill in the K-12 Education Budget Committee. Poskin noted that with the proposed changes to HB 2048, almost any entity in Kansas could divert enough income into groups that fund these schools to guarantee that they have no tax liability to the state general fund, stripping resources away from police officers, roads, and of course, public schools.
During the heated budget meeting, Poskin also noted:
“For the good of the committee, I just want to reiterate that any religious organization or dark money special interest group can basically divert their group’s entire Kansas tax liability up to those limits from our state’s general funds to scholarship-granting organizations for distribution to private schools that are not subject to the same oversight as our Kansas public schools.”
What is unclear from the proposed legislation is what the recipient organization is supposed to do once it has these tax-shelter funds. There does not seem to be any requirement in regards to how they spend the funds received; there’s no rules about how much of these windfalls must go to “scholarships,” no rules stating schools can use large portions of the donations for other purposes such as advertising, promoting, or athletics. It’s unclear what, if any, governance would exist to make sure these scholarship granting funds are on the up and up.
Holy tax scams indeed.