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Alabama Tied in Knots by Tax Vote
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Aug 16, 2003 10:15pm |
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| Category | General |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Saturday, August 16, 2003 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Riley Stuns GOP by Stumping for Hike
By Dale Russakoff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 17, 2003; Page A01
PELHAM, Ala. -- Amid suburban sprawl that has obliterated farms and timber stands and even a hideout where the Ku Klux Klan plotted the infamous Birmingham church bombing, Alabama Republican Party chairman Marty Connors paused on a recent day over hash browns and eggs in a local Cracker Barrel, struggling to make sense of the latest turn in Alabama politics.
"We've got a conservative, evangelical Christian,Republican governor," he said, enunciating each word as if to get his head around the details, "trying to get a massive turnout of black voters to pass a tax increase so he can raise taxes on Republican constituents."
In a stunning subplot to the fiscal crises roiling the states, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) -- who for three terms in Congress boasted that he never voted for a tax increase and was elected governor on a promise not to raise taxes -- is proposing to raise state taxes by a record $1.2 billion, eight times the largest previous increase and almost twice what is needed to close a $675 million budget deficit.
Seizing Alabama's crisis as an opportunity to right historic wrongs, he says the state should act to improve schools funded at the nation's lowest level per child and to lift the tax burden from poor people, who pay income taxes starting at $4,600 a year for a family of four while out-of-state timber companies pay $1.25 an acre in property taxes. The changes would move Alabama from 50th to 44th in total state and local taxes per capita, he says. |
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