Senator Young asked and was granted unanimous consent to make a statement and moved that the statement be printed in the Journal.
The motion prevailed.
Senator Young’s statement is as follows:
Madam President, I would like to begin with a quote: “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Thomas Payne. I offer this amendment to eliminate the tax exemption for buildings owned by the private company that may be running the charter and the cyber school. Private companies should not be making a profit from taxpayer dollars and then receive an exemption from paying taxes themselves. That is not fair, and I would go as far as to say that it is double-dipping. We have cut funding from our cities and our school districts that are in the process of further slashing their revenue by repealing the personal property tax. How much more money do you plan to give away to the corporations?
This current version of the tax exemption for charter schools is worse than the first time you passed it because the building no longer has to have students in it; it just has to be owned by the private company. Any reforms to the school code should be focused on providing a better education for students, not providing bigger profit margins for private businesses.
In the interest of fairness, I urge my colleagues to remove this tax exemption.