Monday, January 30th, 2006...11:58 am
Yarborough’s People
So, you might be wondering why the Republicans keep pushing for these corporate tuition tax credits when they aren’t supported by the public and, in what seems to be more important strategically, will never make it past the Governor’s desk with anything that resembles a signature.
Well, it could be because at least one person could make some money off of it.
Rep. Steve Yarborough directs a group called the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization. The group collects comtributions, ones covered by current tax credits, and disburses them to different schools. Since his salary comes out of donations meant for tuitions, it can be said he is being paid by entirely by these tax credits. If he was just drawing a salary from the organization, it would be one thing. I mean, he does need a day job, and most would introduce a conflict of one sort or another. However, because of the way 501c organizations work, the ACSTO can only pay a small percentage of their revenues in administrative costs. His salary of $106,000 (roughly one third of administrative expenses) could be increased if the organization was able to raise more money due to the corporate tax credit.
I’ll be fair for a minute. Let me just say that at the very least, this is something that the House Ethics Committee should look into this and make a determination if Yarborough’s enthusiasm for corporate tuition tax credits is an actionable conflict of interest, or just a rather helpful coincidence.
Say, who is the Chairman of the Ethics Committee?
Oh yeah, Steve Yarborough is.
These guys have no shame whatsoever.
6 Comments
January 30th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Do you happen to know if the Arizona Republic is bringing this possible conflict of interest to light in their newspaper?
This looks VERY corrupt to me. Elected/government officials should avoid even the APPEARANCE of conflict of interest, given what little trust the public has in them. This pisses me off!!!
January 30th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
He went into politics just a bit too late. If he’d gone in a few years earlier and run for Congress, he could have been one of Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff’s all-stars.
January 31st, 2006 at 5:54 am
Doesn’t Eddie Farnworth also operate some private schools?
January 31st, 2006 at 6:52 am
Yes, yes he does, but he voted against the bills because he doesn’t want to get bossed around by those federal judges.
Except when he wants them to overturn a liberal initiative, of course.
February 15th, 2006 at 7:08 am
It’s Yarbrough. I have political dyslexia, too.
April 4th, 2007 at 7:23 am
[…] Well, there was also a House version of the bill that got stuck in a committee because of Steve Yarbrough. Yarbrough is still pushing his tuition tax credit bill, and was willing to hold this necessary bill hostage to do it. I suppose we whould admire his stick-to-it-ivness, but this monomania is getting rather old. The fact that Yarbrough himself stands to make some serious cash if the credit bill passes probably adds to his enthusiasm. […]
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