Montana court strikes down scholarship tax credit program
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court has struck down a tax credit program as unconstitutional because it violates a ban on state aid to religious schools.
The justices on Wednesday decided 5-2 to invalidate the 2015 state law creating the program that provides tax credits of up to $150 for donations to private school scholarships.
The Department of Revenue wrote regulations after the law was passed prohibiting religious schools from participating because of a constitutional ban on state spending for religious purposes.
A Kalispell judge last year sided with the parents of three religious school students whose lawsuit argued that the state agency's regulations were discriminatory.