When Senate Bill 193 comes to the House floor, I urge you, as strongly as I am able, to vote no.
As representatives of the people of the district, you have an obligation to support the public institutions on which the people rely. Public education is very high among them, and this bill is a thinly veiled attempt to inflict severe damage to our state’s public schools.
I heard a report recently that the attorney general has declared the bill constitutional. The basis for his statement is that the indirect payment of citizens’ tax monies, first into an intermediary fund and thence to – in some cases – religious schools avoids the prohibition contained in our Bill of Rights: “But no person shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of the schools of any sect or denomination.” (Article 6)
Gentlemen, may I remind you that the mechanism approved by the attorney general, if it were in the context of a non-government entity, fits the definition of money laundering? The bill’s constitutionality hangs on the thread of an otherwise criminal practice. Please vote no.
WILLIAM POLITT
Weare