Political Quotes

“I would just like to drive home a couple of the points the gentleman has made and make it very clear that what we are talking about here is more resources for education. It is kind of interesting, as the gentleman points out, in Arizona we adopted a tax credit. The Arizona tax credit is different than our proposal here in Washington, which is not a dollar for dollar match, but rather a one for two match. If you give $2 to education, you get a tax credit, that is to say in simple English, a reduction in your taxes due, the amount of money you have to pay, of $1. That doubles the amount of money going to education before you even factor in the loss of whatever it is, 25 cents, 35 cents, in the bureaucracy, taking the dollar that goes to Washington down to only 65 cents by the time it gets back to the education system or to the child. But on top of that, in Arizona, ours is a dollar for dollar. We did not have the multiplier effect. I think the multiplier effect of the proposal here is a very good one, because no one can say this will divert resources from education, because by definition you have to give twice as much in order to get the single deduction, that is, you give $500, you get a tax credit of only $250. That means there is twice as much money for education, and that is a true benefit. In Arizona, as the gentleman pointed out, the experience has been very positive; and it has encouraged, not discouraged, the funding of education. It has been a boon.”