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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Jay Purdy |
State Rep. Frank
Andrews Shimkus |
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Shimkus bill would encourage business investment in local education
HARRISBURG, March 8 – State Rep. Frank Andrews Shimkus, D-Lackawanna, today announced he is preparing to introduce legislation that would increase funding for a tax incentive program for businesses to get more involved in promoting local education programs.
Shimkus said he is introducing the legislation on behalf of Gov. Ed Rendell as part of his education incentives in the proposed 2007-08 budget and that recent developments in the region are evidence of the value of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program.
The EITC program, enacted in 2001, provides businesses with a 75 percent tax credit if a company donates to a non-profit scholarship or education improvement plan involving pre-kindergarten to 12th-grade students from financially eligible families. The tax credit rate increases to 90 percent if the commitment is made for two consecutive years. A company can receive up to $200,000 in annual tax credits through the program.
Shimkus, a member of the House Education Committee, said the legislation would expand the scholarship aspect of the incentive program to include tutoring services. It also would place requirements on scholarship programs to report the number and amount of scholarships awarded for tutorial programs to help ensure the services are being provided to specification.
The scholarship program assists financially eligible children to attend the school of their choice, whether public, private, parochial, charter or a home schooling curriculum.
The bill would add $1.4 million to the overall scholarship programs allocation to provide for these tutoring services, bringing it up to $55.4 million for fiscal 2007-08.
“We recently lost a number of parochial schools in northeastern Pennsylvania that were forced to close because of financial reasons, further limiting options for students to attend the school of their choice,” said Shimkus.
“As we expand the pool of funds for tax credits, hopefully more businesses will take advantage of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program. By pulling in more scholarship funds to the area, we could use the EITC program to help to prevent the loss of more schools in the future.”
Shimkus can be contacted through his Web site: www.pahouse.com/shimkus.
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