Private school program draws its first donors

Florida Power and WCI Communities will receive dollar-for-dollar state tax relief in exchange for their $5-million contributions.

By ALISA ULFERTS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 18, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Power and a company controlled by one of the state's biggest Republican fundraisers are the first businesses to take advantage of a new state tax incentive program aimed at raising scholarship money for private schools.

Florida Power, based in St. Petersburg, and Al Hoffman's WCI Communities of Bonita Springs, have each donated the maximum $5-million allowed under the program, passed by the Legislature last year.

The companies will get tax relief equal to their donations.

The money will fund scholarship organizations that pay up to $3,500 for a low-income child to attend private school or up to $500 in transportation costs for a student to transfer from one public school district to another.

The donations mean a loss of $10-million in state revenue that the companies would otherwise have paid in corporate income taxes.

The Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program builds on other voucher-style programs Gov. Jeb Bush has supported. One allows parents to use tax dollars to transfer their children from poor-performing public schools to private schools. The second program, the brainchild of Senate President John McKay, allows parents of disabled students to transfer them to other public or private schools.

The scholarship program, which began Jan. 1, has been controversial because it gives tax credits for donations for private schools but doesn't for donations to public schools.

It was embraced this week by Al Hoffman, a Republican fundraiser and chief executive officer of WCI, a land development company.

"As Americans, we respect and enjoy our freedoms. Unfortunately, limited resources and other circumstances often restrict a family's freedom to choose where their children are educated," Hoffman said in a company news release.

"Florida's new Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program offers WCI and others a chance to enable those parents to choose what's best for their children," he added.

Florida Power officials also praised the program and said they plan to help nearly 1,500 low-income students with their donation.

The law caps total tax credits under the program to $50-million a year.

Democrats call that a goal, not a limit, and say the program siphons more tax dollars away from public schools at a time when every penny counts.

"It's just plain wrong to divert tax dollars to private schools," said House Democratic Leader Lois Frankel.

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