The “Keep Our Kids Here” tax credit would provide a tax benefit to Montana businesses that opt to pay their employees' student loans.
“I think the greatest natural resource we have in Montana is our kids,” Brown said at a press conference at the University of Montana. “Unfortunately, so often we export our greatest natural resource to other states because of the mounting student loan debt many of our students have by the time they get through the school.”
To qualify for the tax credit, graduates would be required to reside and pay taxes in Montana, and the credit would be available for businesses employing graduates of two- and four-year programs across the state.
If the credit is implemented, the state would initially take a hit to its general fund, Brown admitted.
But he said the credit would pay for itself by helping to create high-paying jobs that would ultimately generate additional revenue.
“So it has economic benefits for the state, too, and it will more than compensate for the initial cost of the tax credit,” he said.
UM senior Dan Stusek said he thinks the credit would be very beneficial to students.
“Knowing how much hardship students go through with student loans, it's great that businesses can help out,” he said.
But Gov. Brian Schweitzer's campaign is wary of Brown's interest in helping students fund higher education.
“Roy Brown has spent the last 10 years in the Legislature either underfunding higher education or voting against the needs of college students,” Schweitzer's campaign manager Harper Lawson said in a statement. “Now he wants voters to think he's actually concerned about the cost of college. That's as sad as it is laughable.”
During Brown's legislative tenure, he voted against creating the “Best and Brightest” college scholarship program and against freezing tuition in 2007, according to the Schweitzer camp.
“Clearly, Mr. Brown's campaign rhetoric and political promises don't match up at all with the sad reality of his record on college affordability,” the statement read.
Still, Stusek said he thinks Brown's tax credit proposal is promising.
“I see it as great that students might see some of that money rather than just the government or businesses keeping it to themselves,” he said. “It sounds like a great incentive.”
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