SB71 Alabama 2015 Session

This bill would clarify and confirm that the intent of the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013 is educational choice and would amend certain definitions and provisions of the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013

To amend Sections 16-6D-4 and 16-6D-9, Code of Alabama 1975, relating to the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013; to clarify and confirm that the intent of the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013 is educational choice; to amend certain current definitions and add new definitions; to amend the reporting period for scholarship granting organizations from a calendar year to an academic year; to clarify and confirm that educational scholarships are provided to eligible students, not to particular schools; to clarify and confirm that once a student has received an educational scholarship under the program, the student remains eligible to receive educational scholarships until high school graduation or the student reaches 19 years of age, but would require scholarship granting organizations to determine income eligibility every other year; to require all participating private schools to be accredited by one of the six regional accrediting agencies, the National Council for Private School Accreditation, Advanced Ed, the American Association of Christian Schools, or one of their partner accrediting agencies, within three years from the date their notice of intent to participate in the scholarship program is filed with the Department of Revenue or the effective date of this Act, whichever is later; to allow certain pass-through entities, such as Subchapter S corporations and limited liability companies, to make contributions to scholarship granting organizations and to allow the credit earned by the entity to pass through to and be claimed by its owners, and to expand the definition of "individual taxpayer" to include the individual owners of these pass-through entities; to clarify and confirm that donors making contributions to scholarship granting organizations cannot earmark their contribution for a particular school or to fund scholarships for a particular student or group of students; to prohibit scholarship granting organizations from making lumpsum, block grants, or other similar payments to otherwise qualifying schools; to remove the current $7,500 annual limitation on contributions made to scholarship granting organizations by individual taxpayers; to increase the cumulative amount of tax credits available in a calendar year to $35,000,000; to allow taxpayers to make contributions to scholarship granting organizations before the due date, with extensions, of a timely filed 2014 tax return but reserve tax credits against the remaining balance of the 2014 cumulative amount of tax credits available; to clarify and confirm that scholarship granting organizations may use up to five percent of their revenues from donations for administrative or operating expenses in the year of donation or any subsequent year; to amend the deadline for the annual reports required to be filed by scholarship granting organizations with the Department of Revenue and provide for additional quarterly reports to be filed with the Department of Revenue; to require that such reports be made publicly available on the Department of Revenue's website; to change the release date for unaccounted scholarship funds from September 15 to May 15 of each calendar year; to prohibit so-called lock-up agreements between scholarship granting organizations and otherwise qualifying schools that would limit or prevent students who received educational scholarships from other scholarship granting organizations from attending that school; to require scholarship granting organizations to submit annual verification to the Department of Revenue of the policies and procedures used to determine a student’s eligibility for an educational scholarship and to clarify and confirm that scholarship granting organizations, not schools, are responsible for determining student eligibility; to require qualifying schools to provide information on financial viability prior to receiving educational scholarship payments; to require participating schools to comply with the Alabama Child Protection Act of 1999; and to provide for a limited retroactive effective date.