Alabama tax breaks

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: April 14, 2009

If you saw Friday’s episode of “Capitol Journal,“ you might remember the segment in which New York Times regional newspapers reporter Dana Beyerle and I discussed the dueling bills to repeal the grocery sales tax.

By way of background, the Democrats’ bill would repeal the grocery sales tax altogether; Republicans, on the other hand, want a sales tax rebate program for Alabamians under a certain (very low) income threshhold.

The Democrats’ plan would cost an estimated $400 million, which is paid for by a repeal of the federal income tax credit for Alabamians over a certain income threshhold. The Republicans’ plan is estimated to cost between $15 million and $20 million; they are still trying to figure out how to pay for it.

I said on the show last week that I am not a huge fan of either one of these bills. The Democratic plan is bait-and-switch: It would levy a new tax—though on fewer people—in place of the lifted one. I’m not a fan of anyone, no matter how rich they are, paying taxes twice on their income. It’s bad enough to have to pay taxes once on something you’ve already earned. But the Republican bill discriminates. If some Alabamians aren’t going to have to pay the grocery tax, why should I have to?

Dana and I briefly broached the subject of all the tax breaks that exist in Alabama. The point was that if the Legislature was really serious about repealing the grocery tax in a fair and equitable way, they would take an unvarnished look at the laundry list of tax credits, incentives and rebates they give for all manner of reasons and to all manner of entities in this state.

Enter my blogger friend Kris.

He started wondering this week how much the state should be collecting but isn’t because of credits, incentives and rebates. He decided he was going to figure it out. So he started this Wiki site to catalog them.

If you live in this state, his effort is worth your time and attention.

Kris says there are only two states—Alabama and Georgia—that don’t compile tax break information for its citizens. If transparency is good enough for 48 other states, you have to wonder why our lawmakers don’t think we deserve it.

Kudos to Kris for determining to ferret out some hard numbers on an issue that politicians are very good at making very foggy.

Alabama legislators, we are watching you.