Written by Don Byrd
The New Hampshire Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments in a challenge to the state’s tuition tax credit program. Businesses in the state are receiving tax credits for paying private school tuition through a scholarship incentive program. Because many of those funds are going to religious schools, plaintiffs argue the scheme violates the provision in New Hampshire’s Constitution barring public aid for religious education.
Are tax credits for religious education the same as tax money flowing to religious schools? That was a focus of the debate. The Concord Monitor (via Religion Clause) has more.
Justice Carol Ann Conboy seemed skeptical yesterday that the cash was anything but public. “The factual reality is,” she said, “without the credit, those taxpaying businesses would be obligated to pay the taxes to the state.”
. . . Associate Attorney General Richard Head argued that even if Conboy’s point is true, the state does not consciously direct money to religious schools.
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But Alex Luchenitser, an attorney arguing against the law . . . said it shouldn’t matter whether the money is generated directly from taxes.“This court’s decisions have repeatedly held that the state should not be permitted to circumvent the state Constitution by doing indirectly what it cannot do directly,” Luchenitser said.
You can watch the oral arguments here.
