Mumbles
9th May 2010, 21:01
BOB BLALOCK: Is fixing Alabama's tax system socialism, or fairness?
By Bob Blalock -- The Birmingham News (http://connect.al.com/user/bblalock/index.html)
May 09, 2010, 5:45AM
Joe Sixpack makes $1,200 a month. He pays $122 in state and local taxes from that $1,200.
Joseph Lafite Rothschild IV brings home $36,000 a month, or $1,200 a day. He pays $48 in state and local taxes from that $1,200.
There is no doubt Rothschild forks over far more than Sixpack every year in state and local income, sales and property taxes: more than $17,000 to less than $1,500.
But there is also no doubt Sixpack pays a far higher share of his income in state and local taxes than Rothschild: 10.2 percent to 4 percent. Those figures are based on a recent Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy report.
Think about that: Families like Sixpack's in the lowest 20 percent of income earners (average: $10,400 a year) pay a 250 percent higher share of their incomes in state and local taxes than those like Rothschild's in the top 1 percent (average: $1.2 million).
Dare to suggest, as a News editorial did Monday, that Alabama's tax system is out of whack when those at the federal poverty level pay far more in state income tax than in any other state. That the poor shouldn't have to pay so much more of their incomes in taxes compared to the wealthy. That no one should have to pay state sales tax on groceries. Dare to suggest such, and the accusations spew like crude oil from BP's blown-up gulf well.
A sampling from al.com: "As usual, the ever more bleeding-heart socialistic Birmingham News has skewed the facts and presented only the data that supports what they want us to think. Fact is, Alabama just has less cradle-to-grave handouts than you liberals want." "It's commentary like this that makes me wish that someone could come up with a way to redistribute intelligence." "Incredibly deceptive article that moves back and forth between absolute numbers and percentages, etc."
Wow. We're bleeding-heart socialists who deliberately distort facts because we want to redistribute wealth from rich to poor. And we're stupid, to boot.
All because we want a tax system that's more fair to more Alabamians. Yet, many Alabamians, and lawmakers, are perfectly willing to leave in place a system that punishes not just the poor, but the middle class. The middle 20 percent of income earners (average income $34,600) account for 11.4 percent of statewide income, but pay 15.9 percent of taxes, the ITEP says.
"We've got to do a lot more educating on the difference between how the middle is treated in our tax system and the very wealthy are treated," says Kimble Forrister, state coordinator for Alabama Arise, a group that lobbies for the poor.
They shouldn't count on help from the Legislature anytime soon. Lawmakers in recent years have made only one real change: In 2006, they raised the income threshold at which states begin collecting income tax from $4,600 -- the nation's lowest -- to $12,600 a year. Since then, a few states have leapfrogged Alabama, so it now ranks second lowest among states with an income tax.
In this year's session, lawmakers, for at least the fourth straight year, killed a plan to end the state's 4 percent sales tax on food and pay for it by raising taxes on wealthier Alabamians. Forrister understands how hard it is to change hearts and minds. He points to a decades-long "anti-government frenzy" that has led people to believe little good comes when government spends their tax dollars. Add politicians who demagogue no-new-taxes pledges. Throw in taxpayers who can't believe we live in the nation's lowest-taxed state -- with good reason, thanks to our upside-down tax system.
No wonder we hate taxes. Of course, tax hatred has been with us a long time.
"It did occur to me that in Jesus' time, people didn't like Zacchaeus, the tax collector," Forrister says.
The wealthy taxman Zacchaeus, we learned in Sunday school, wanted to see Jesus when he visited Jericho. Zacchaeus was short, so he climbed a tree to get a view. Jesus called him by name and told Zacchaeus he wanted to stay at his house. The crowd murmured with disapproval because they considered the tax collector a public sinner. Zacchaeus, realizing he was being offered a chance to repent, told Jesus he would give half his money to the poor.
Now, no one is suggesting as public policy that Alabama's wealthiest give half their money to the poor. But can't we at least create a system in which a person's share of taxes more closely reflects what he earns?
Many, many more Alabamians than not would see their overall tax burden drop under such a system. Is that bleeding-heart socialism, or is it just fair?
Bob Blalock is editorial page editor of The News. E-mail: [email protected] (http://blog.al.com/bblalock/2010/05/[email protected]). Blog: blog.al.com/bblalock
http://blog.al.com/bblalock/2010/05/bob_blalock_is_fixing_alabamas.html
The one time in forever I actually sit down and read my local newspaper I see this. It definitely caught me off guard since all I'm seeing on tv now is the ads for the local gubernatorial candidate who's trying to get elected so he can make the driver's license test only be in English.
By Bob Blalock -- The Birmingham News (http://connect.al.com/user/bblalock/index.html)
May 09, 2010, 5:45AM
Joe Sixpack makes $1,200 a month. He pays $122 in state and local taxes from that $1,200.
Joseph Lafite Rothschild IV brings home $36,000 a month, or $1,200 a day. He pays $48 in state and local taxes from that $1,200.
There is no doubt Rothschild forks over far more than Sixpack every year in state and local income, sales and property taxes: more than $17,000 to less than $1,500.
But there is also no doubt Sixpack pays a far higher share of his income in state and local taxes than Rothschild: 10.2 percent to 4 percent. Those figures are based on a recent Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy report.
Think about that: Families like Sixpack's in the lowest 20 percent of income earners (average: $10,400 a year) pay a 250 percent higher share of their incomes in state and local taxes than those like Rothschild's in the top 1 percent (average: $1.2 million).
Dare to suggest, as a News editorial did Monday, that Alabama's tax system is out of whack when those at the federal poverty level pay far more in state income tax than in any other state. That the poor shouldn't have to pay so much more of their incomes in taxes compared to the wealthy. That no one should have to pay state sales tax on groceries. Dare to suggest such, and the accusations spew like crude oil from BP's blown-up gulf well.
A sampling from al.com: "As usual, the ever more bleeding-heart socialistic Birmingham News has skewed the facts and presented only the data that supports what they want us to think. Fact is, Alabama just has less cradle-to-grave handouts than you liberals want." "It's commentary like this that makes me wish that someone could come up with a way to redistribute intelligence." "Incredibly deceptive article that moves back and forth between absolute numbers and percentages, etc."
Wow. We're bleeding-heart socialists who deliberately distort facts because we want to redistribute wealth from rich to poor. And we're stupid, to boot.
All because we want a tax system that's more fair to more Alabamians. Yet, many Alabamians, and lawmakers, are perfectly willing to leave in place a system that punishes not just the poor, but the middle class. The middle 20 percent of income earners (average income $34,600) account for 11.4 percent of statewide income, but pay 15.9 percent of taxes, the ITEP says.
"We've got to do a lot more educating on the difference between how the middle is treated in our tax system and the very wealthy are treated," says Kimble Forrister, state coordinator for Alabama Arise, a group that lobbies for the poor.
They shouldn't count on help from the Legislature anytime soon. Lawmakers in recent years have made only one real change: In 2006, they raised the income threshold at which states begin collecting income tax from $4,600 -- the nation's lowest -- to $12,600 a year. Since then, a few states have leapfrogged Alabama, so it now ranks second lowest among states with an income tax.
In this year's session, lawmakers, for at least the fourth straight year, killed a plan to end the state's 4 percent sales tax on food and pay for it by raising taxes on wealthier Alabamians. Forrister understands how hard it is to change hearts and minds. He points to a decades-long "anti-government frenzy" that has led people to believe little good comes when government spends their tax dollars. Add politicians who demagogue no-new-taxes pledges. Throw in taxpayers who can't believe we live in the nation's lowest-taxed state -- with good reason, thanks to our upside-down tax system.
No wonder we hate taxes. Of course, tax hatred has been with us a long time.
"It did occur to me that in Jesus' time, people didn't like Zacchaeus, the tax collector," Forrister says.
The wealthy taxman Zacchaeus, we learned in Sunday school, wanted to see Jesus when he visited Jericho. Zacchaeus was short, so he climbed a tree to get a view. Jesus called him by name and told Zacchaeus he wanted to stay at his house. The crowd murmured with disapproval because they considered the tax collector a public sinner. Zacchaeus, realizing he was being offered a chance to repent, told Jesus he would give half his money to the poor.
Now, no one is suggesting as public policy that Alabama's wealthiest give half their money to the poor. But can't we at least create a system in which a person's share of taxes more closely reflects what he earns?
Many, many more Alabamians than not would see their overall tax burden drop under such a system. Is that bleeding-heart socialism, or is it just fair?
Bob Blalock is editorial page editor of The News. E-mail: [email protected] (http://blog.al.com/bblalock/2010/05/[email protected]). Blog: blog.al.com/bblalock
http://blog.al.com/bblalock/2010/05/bob_blalock_is_fixing_alabamas.html
The one time in forever I actually sit down and read my local newspaper I see this. It definitely caught me off guard since all I'm seeing on tv now is the ads for the local gubernatorial candidate who's trying to get elected so he can make the driver's license test only be in English.