Adopt the Opportunity Scholarships Act and provide for income tax credits

Brief

What this bill does

If it passes, what actually changes?

This is a tax bill that sets up a new statewide program. Donors give money to charities that pay private school tuition, and the state gives the donors most of it back as a tax credit.

• Creates the Opportunity Scholarships Act, sections 1 to 13 of the bill.
• The Department of Revenue must certify scholarship-granting organizations before they award any scholarship (section 4).
• Individuals, pass-through businesses, and corporations get credits capped at $100,000 or 50% of tax liability.
• Estates and trusts get a much larger cap of $1,000,000 (section 7).
• Credits are nonrefundable, carry forward five years, and cannot be carried back.
• Average scholarships are capped at 75% of statewide general fund spending per formula student.

What it says it is for

Does it do what it claims?

The title is accurate as far as it goes. What it leaves out is who the money reaches and when.

• Match: sections 1 through 13 adopt the Opportunity Scholarships Act, exactly as titled.
• Match: sections 5 through 8 provide income tax credits to individuals, businesses, estates, and corporations.
• Match: the bill amends sections 77-2715.07, 77-2717, and 77-2734.03 and repeals the originals.
• Gap: the title never says the credits underwrite tuition at privately operated schools.
• Gap: the title promises an operative date, but no operative date appears in the visible text.
• Gap: nothing signals income limits, and students transferring from public school face none.

Where Scripture bears on it

What does the Bible say about this?

This bill sets one claim against another: the claim of a parent to direct a child's schooling, and the claim of the poor on public provision. Scripture presses both. Proverbs 4:1 — "Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding." — treats the handing down of understanding as a household office, which is the premise of the whole scholarship structure. Isaiah 1:17 — "Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." — sets the test the findings in section 2 invite by naming parents of limited means, and it is a test of where the relief actually lands, not of what a preamble says. What the verses do not settle is nearly everything the drafting turns on: they say nothing about whether schooling should be publicly or privately provided, nothing about whether a tax credit is a fit instrument for relieving the poor, nothing about a one-hundred-thousand-dollar cap or a one-million-dollar one, and nothing about whether eligibility should be capped at one hundred eighty-five, two hundred thirteen, or three hundred percent of a federal guideline. They frame the duty; the numbers in sections 4 through 9 are the legislature's alone.

The case each way

What is the strongest argument for, and against?

The disagreement is whether a tax credit for private tuition is help for families or a drain on public revenue.

• For: Poor families get first crack, with priority to households under 185% of the federal poverty level.
• For: Donors cannot earmark a contribution for any student they name, blocking the most obvious self-dealing.
• For: Scholarships are capped at the school's actual cost to educate a student.
• Against: Every dollar credited is a dollar of state income tax the state never collects.
• Against: Qualified schools need only nonprofit status, safety compliance, and section 79-318 accreditation or approval.
• Against: Estates and trusts may claim $1,000,000, ten times the cap other taxpayers face.

What is unsettled

What should I be careful about?

This reading covers only the text supplied, which cuts off partway through section 9.

• The statewide credit limit referenced in section 9(3) is missing; the annual dollar cap is unknown.
• Sections 10 through 13 are not shown, including the reporting duties section 4 requires.
• No fiscal note or revenue estimate appears; the cost to the state is unstated.
• "Cost to educate an eligible student" caps every award but is never defined.
• The Department may revoke a certification, and no appeal process appears in the text.
• Whether public school funding changes is not addressed anywhere in the visible text.

Text (1)

• Introduced (application/pdf)

Each link opens the Legislature's own document. The text itself is not in our database yet (fetched lazily); when it lands these pages will carry it verbatim.

All Actions (10)

Votes (0)

There have been no roll call votes on this bill.

Sponsors (1)

• Sen. Tony Sorrentino [District 39] — primary sponsor

Amendments (0)

There are no amendments to this bill.

Fiscal Notes & Statements (2)

• Fiscal Note — Fiscal Note
• Statement of Intent — Statement of Intent

The Legislature's own companion documents; each link opens the official copy.

Committees (1)

Related Bills (0)

No related bill information was received for LB509.