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Aug

21

Closer look at student “tax credit” plans in ME, OK referenced by Mandel, Goyal


Read about the proposal for giving Ohio graduates a tax credit if they stay in Ohio for multiple years here.

Now – the potential co-sponsors of this bill, State Representatives Josh Mandel (R- Lyndhurst) and Jay Goyal (D- Mansfield), have indicated that both Maine and Oklahoma have similar programs.  But neither the press release or any of the news stories I’ve seen have written about how those plans work, when they started and how if at all successful they’ve been.

I’ll try to get the ball rolling, although I’m not 100% sure I’ve found what they were referencing.  And I’d also like to go on record as hoping that the Ohio Chancellor for Education goes on the record with an opinion about the Mandel-Goyal initiative.

MAINE

The website for Maine’s Educational Opportunity Tax Credit program, which began in January 2008, Opportunity Maine has an FAQ page where you can see answers to many questions and download their version of the student contract.

What I notice from the front page is that Opportunity Maine says that it:

…was founded by student and community leaders from all over Maine who are committed to advancing economic opportunity and prosperity in Maine.

We are working to educate and organize Mainers of all ages and political persuasions about the importance of affordable higher education for our state’s economic and community development.

State reps are community leaders of a sort, but, like many pieces of legislation that get into the Ohio Genearl Assembly, I would like to know if it’s had involvement from student leaders.  So often, the draft legislation comes from some lobby or special interest group, like Ohio Learn and Earn or Phil Burress and the adult entertainment-related bills.  Or even the Castle Doctrine bill, which was opposed by many law enforcement groups. Mandel I know was a student leader when he was a student but that was several years ago (he’s now 30).  So I’d love to hear from current student leaders.  Maine’s program came directly from its citizens:

Opportunity Maine was founded by student and community leaders from all over Maine who are committed to advancing sustainable economic prosperity in our state. We succeeded in bringing the Opportunity Maine Initiative from idea to citizens’ initiative to law. For only the sixth time in Maine history, the Maine Legislature passed a citizens’ initiative outright – unanimously in the House of Representatives, overwhelmingly in the Senate, and with the enthusiastic signature of Governor John Baldacci. Now, through public education, grassroots organizing, policy development, and other means, we are working to make the Opportunity Maine program successful, bring educational opportunity to all Maine people, and develop the workforce Maine’s businesses need to succeed.

Here’s an editorial that lauds the program’s potential. Here’s a piece in opposition to the program, prior to its enactment. And here’s a piece that anticipates the program as it starts (just eight months ago). And, it made the Drum Major Institutes list of top ten policies for 2007.

OKLAHOMA

I’ve had little success in 10-15 minutes of searching for something similar in Oklahoma, though that state has a few other kinds of programs to help students afford college.  What I did find was a reference to tax credits in a 1999 document, Brain Gain 2010 and there’s a 2008 update of that document here. This OK tax credit program seems to be for corporations but I haven’t read it thoroughly and might be what Mandel and Goyal are referencing.

If anyone has better info, feel free to drop a note in the comments.  Both of these examples are very new and neither state seems to have information on the success of the plans as of right now.

BONUS: Here students in Massillion talk about the proposal.

By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:08 pm August 21st, 2008 in Education, OH17, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse, Youth 

Comments

2 Responses to “Closer look at student “tax credit” plans in ME, OK referenced by Mandel, Goyal”

  1. 1 oengus on August 21st, 2008 11:57 pm

    How much of a tax break? Considering that earning around 45K you pay about 5.25% in tax what would be the break? How much of the $2,300.00 would they get back?

    It needs requirements or criteria, attending an Ohio institution and a percentage of total semester hours from that institution.

    What would be poor legislation is something that simply gave graduates that stay in the state a write off. It should be for opportunities or position that are difficult to fill.

    A professional incentive package, working with large employers.

    That’s linking career services of universities with human resources of major employers, if they recruit from our universities and the student meet the criteria then a possible write off.

    It would not have to be only graduates from Ohio Universities, it could be any professional that move to the state for a given period of employment.

    It should be specific, with percentage write down that are variables based on criteria, the university, the type of degree and the type of employment.

    It all leads back to the need for data, who you are and what you do.

    This is really about incentives and also disincentives, do all nursing students know they could be employed at the Cleveland Clinic and buy a new town home in the city and pay no property taxes for 15-years? If this legislation was in place could a graduate from Cleveland state school of nursing also get a Ohio income tax refund.

    That something to advertise isn’t it?

    Should the Universities be advertising it, under nursing careers nationally?

    Makes me think that this should have been part of empowerment zones, how to infuse wealth into blighted areas. Its a big carrot, graduate and this is what you get, if you stay.

    What if you simultaneously set up incentive based reductions in taxes with more efficient cost effect government? Would we be paying less and earning more, eventually.

  2. 2 JB on August 22nd, 2008 12:16 am

    Josh Mandel is great at coming up with ideas that sound wonderful to voters until you stop to think it through. (The definition of a panderer?) Now he has an idea that will transfer millions of dollars to young adults who agree to stay in Ohio after college, most of whom were probably going to stay in Ohio anyway.

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