Mission
The purpose of the Apostolic Action Network is to engage in important government issues relating to protecting our religious freedoms.
Working together, complementing each other’s strengths, we have teamed up to pass major pieces of legislation, every year, since 2014. Some of the recent highlights include:
Learn to Earn (2020) … Our latest victory is an innovative course-choice program that encourages parents and nonprofits to partner with public schools to create diverse apprenticeship and internship opportunities.
Children’s Promise Act Expansion #2 (2020) … We doubled the existing corporate tax credit (see below) from $5 million to $10 million and made the program permanent.
Donor Privacy Protections in Louisiana (2020) … Building upon our previous work in Mississippi, we worked to pass donor privacy protections for nonprofits in Louisiana. This was accomplished during a difficult session featuring infighting between the Republican legislature and the Democrat governor, not to mention a pandemic that sidetracked many other bills.
Children’s Promise Act Expansion #1 (2019) … This law added a $5 million annual corporate tax credit to our existing Arizona-style individual foster care nonprofit tax credit. The law also expanded our individual credit from $1 million to $3 million. In addition, we added a school choice tax credit.
Donor Privacy Protections (2019) … We made Mississippi the first state in the nation to enact comprehensive donor privacy protections at the state level. This bill passed over stiff local and national opposition and is very important for the movement as a whole.
Fresh Start (2019) … This law makes it easier for nonviolent offenders to obtain an occupational license. It was passed in spite of stiff internal opposition from certain conservative lawmakers.
Children’s Promise Act (2018) … We made Mississippi the second state in the nation (after Arizona) to pass an innovative individual tax credit for supporters of foster care nonprofits. The initial program passed with a $1 million cap.
Creation of Governor’s Faith-based Initiatives Council (2017) … This law is modeled after a successful Florida program. Ron Matis was the inaugural chairman, and Jameson Taylor is the current chair.
Changes to Mississippi’s Divorce Law (2017) … We worked together to limit the damage some of the aspects of this law could have caused.
Protecting Parental Rights (2016) … We built a diverse coalition to protect parental rights in public school settings.
The Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act (2015) … As part of a larger coalition, we made Mississippi the third state in the nation to create an Education Scholarship Account (ESA) program.