Rock Island Today

House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) is accusing the state’s Democratic lawmakers of overlooking “shared priorities” with the GOP by angling to kill off the Invest in Kids Tax Credit Scholarship Program.

 “Republicans and Democrats have shared priorities and past promises that need to be kept,” McCombie said in a statement. “Today we learned from Gov. Pritzker and Democratic leaders that our shared priorities are not included.” 

More than 9,000 K-12 students are the beneficiaries of the Invest in Kids Tax Credit. Pritzker noted in a May 24 press conference he would not be seeking to fund the program going further. “This is not something that’s been covered by the budget agreement. It’s something that still has time, potentially, but it’s not something that’s in the budget agreement,” Pritzker said at a press conference announcing a budget deal had been struck.

The Tax Credit Scholarship Program allows for donors to receive a tax benefit for donating to a state-maintained scholarship program for private schools for low-income families. 

Republican lawmakers have wrote a letter pushing for the continuation of the program.

“We the undersigned members of the Illinois General Assembly are expressing our support of the extension of the ‘Invest in Kids’ Scholarship Fund,” the  letter from Republican legislators reads. “This is a shared priority of both caucuses which benefits the education of underprivileged children. We look forward to the sunset of this program being extended.”

The Wall Street Journal called on the General Assembly to keep the plan in place. 

“In 2022-23 more than 32,000 students applied for scholarships, which let them attend more than 760 private and religious schools across the state. Since 2017 the program has raised more than $330 million in private donations with the most common gift around $1,000. Voters can claim a partial state income tax credit for their contribution,” the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board wrote. “The program is popular with voters. In May 2021, an ARW Strategies poll showed 61% of Illinois voters approved the tax-credit program, including 67% of state Democrats. Seventy-one percent of black voters and 81% of Hispanics statewide approved of the plan. The program’s popularity is one reason Gov. J.B. Pritzker has reversed his earlier opposition. He ran against it in 2018 but in 2022 indicated support on a Chicago Sun-Times candidate questionnaire.”