I think US Senator Jason Carter has a nice ring to it, don't you?
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:30:41 -0500
From: flowersliz123@gmail.com
To: danmatt@hotmail.com
Subject: Fort, Carter Take on Tax Fraud in Scholarship Org
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MEDIA RELEASE
January 24, 2013
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For Immediate Release
Contact:
Liz Flowers
Senate Democratic Caucus
404-291-4755
flowersliz123@gmail.com
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Fort, Carter Take on Tax Fraud in Scholarship Org
Taxpayer dollars being diverted on scam
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Atlanta, Ga. - January 30, 2013 - Citing blatant tax fraud, Sens. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) and Jason Carter (D-Decatur) introduced legislation this week to bring a stop to the tax fraud scheme that exists within the Student Scholarship Organization (SSO).
"Accounting for these tax abuses has been fraught with difficulty because tax records have not been made public, reports from the organizations limited and all sums have been lumped together making it impossible to trace donations back to their source," said Sen. Vincent Fort, whip of the Democratic Caucus.
A construct of 2008 legislation, the SSO program has operated for nearly half a decade under the guise of a tax credit program pooling donations to fund tuition for underprivileged students attending private schools. Lacking significant government oversight however, the program has become a hot bed for tax fraud.
To open up channels of accountability, the Fort/Carter SSO transparency package requires schools receiving scholarship students to make certain limited reports and makes the schools subject to certain Georgia Open Records requirements. It also prevents the scheduled increases in the amount of money flowing into the program.
"I am deeply concerned about widespread abuse in this program. Our transparency proposals benefit the taxpayers, who deserve to know exactly how the money is being used. They also help the law-abiding schools and SSOs who play by the rules. The majority party's desire to divert money from public schools should not require our state to condone fraud," said Carter.
The Southern Education Foundation filed a complaint with the Department of Revenue this week, with a 29-page report listing the scholarship programs many tax abuses.
Several incidences have been reported of parents using the program as a back-door voucher for private schools. Instead of donating the money to a general tuition pool as scholarships to participating schools, donors, often parents, are designating their contributions to particular students-an action that is inherently unconstitutional.
An even more egregious abuse that has been cited entails parents collecting full tuition from the program though fraudulent enrollment paperwork.
The Southern Education Foundation has called for a moratorium on the program until a full investigation is conducted.
Since its inception, $170 million in state revenue was set aside for tax credit payouts. This year taxpayers can anticipate that another $50.5 million in tax dollars will be diverted to the scholarship program.
Despite supporters of SSO claims that abuse is rare, Fort says the scholarship program is nothing short of a scam, bilking the state and taxpayers out of millions of dollars.
"Hard earned taxpayer dollars are being redirected to benefit private schools, it's undeniable that the program as currently implemented is nothing but a vehicle to abet tax fraud," said Fort.
Senate democrats find this diversion of tax dollars even more reprehensible when nine out of ten students in Georgia currently attend public schools.
"I am deeply distressed that our state continues to allow tax dollars to be diverted to student scholarship organizations that serve only a few of our children, when our public schools have been devastated by austerity cuts of over $6 billion," said Sen. Horacena Tate, chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus and a member of the Senate Education Committee.
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