{"id":530,"date":"2003-08-19T15:18:37","date_gmt":"2003-08-19T20:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/530.html"},"modified":"2003-08-19T15:18:37","modified_gmt":"2003-08-19T20:18:37","slug":"fascinating-fight-over-taxes-in-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/fascinating-fight-over-taxes-in-alabama\/","title":{"rendered":"Fascinating fight over taxes in Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not really in the habit of agreeing with Republicans, particularly those that hail from Alabama, but I have to admire Gov. Bob Riley for doing the right thing with his new tax proposal.<\/p>\n

Alabama’s tax rate is currently at the very bottom — 50th of 50 states for total state and local taxes per capita.<\/p>\n

Riley, a former GOP House member, ran for governor promising not to raise taxes. Once in office, however, he had a difficult choice to make. Alabama was facing a $675 million deficit — larger than previously expected — and an increased strain on a variety of state programs.<\/p>\n

As the Mobile Register noted<\/a>, without new revenue, Alabama would have to close the state’s poorest school districts, cut off prescription drugs for 11,000 mental health patients, fire a third of the Alabama’s state troopers, and deny eligibility to almost 7,000 elderly citizens on Medicaid.<\/p>\n

So Riley unveiled a plan<\/a> to raise taxes. A lot.<\/p>\n

After running on an anti-tax platform, and bragging that he never once voted for a tax increase while in Congress, Riley has crafted a proposal to raise taxes in Alabama by $1.2 billion — eight times the largest tax increase ever passed in the state.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Riley has never been a moderate Republican. He’s a conservative and always has been. So what’s going on here?
\n
\nAlabamians don’t know what to think. As the Washington Post reported the other day, the state Republican Party chairman recently said, “We’ve got a conservative, evangelical Christian, Republican<\/i> governor,” he said, enunciating each word as if to get his head around the details, “trying to get a massive turnout of black<\/i> voters to pass a tax increase so he can raise taxes on Republican<\/i> constituents.” <\/p>\n

Poor guy, it sounds like his head is going to explode just thinking about it.<\/p>\n

Riley explains simply, “I’m tired of Alabama being first in things that are bad and last in things that are good.” He believes an educated work force, a modern prison system, and a fully-staffed police force will be good for the state, so he’s asking the state to pay for it.<\/p>\n

Realizing that Alabama is in the heart of the Bible Belt, Riley is even appealing to the state’s Christian sensibilities.<\/p>\n

“When I read the New Testament, there are three things we’re asked to do: That’s love God, love each other and take care of the least among us,” Riley tells citizens when he tries to sell his plan. He also notes that the current system imposes an effective rate of 3 percent on the wealthiest Alabamians and 12 percent on the poorest — a system Riley argues is “immoral.”<\/p>\n

Changing the existing tax structure, however, isn’t up to him or the state legislature. For over a century in Alabama, changes on taxes require a statewide referendum. Riley, in other words, needs conservative Republicans in a Bible Belt state to vote to raise their own taxes at an unprecedented rate.<\/p>\n

The issue will go before voters on Sept. 9. I wish Riley luck; he’ll need it.<\/p>\n

Riley has already succeeded in convincing some people. The state Democratic chairman has endorsed Riley’s plan, as has the state teachers’ union and a coalition of major insurance, banking, utility and consumer product companies that have clamored for years for more education funding to help modernize the economy.<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is that the conservative Republican governor is being fought hardest by the conservative Republicans.<\/p>\n

The state GOP is opposed to Riley’s plan, saying, “If a Democrat had proposed this, we would be burning down cities.”<\/p>\n

The Christian Coalition of Alabama also came out strongly against the plan. “We applaud tax relief for the poor. You’ll find most Alabamians have got a charitable heart; they want to do that. They just don’t want it coming out of their pocket.”<\/p>\n

Wisdom only the Christian Coalition can provide. Whose pocket do they think the money will come from?<\/p>\n

In any event, if polls are any indication, Riley will lose the vote on his new tax plan. One recent survey showed support lagging 20 points behind opposition.<\/p>\n

I’ll let you know what happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not really in the habit of agreeing with Republicans, particularly those that hail from Alabama, but I have to admire Gov. Bob Riley for doing the right thing with his new tax proposal. Alabama’s tax rate is currently at the very bottom — 50th of 50 states for total state and local taxes per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}