| First off, as noted earlier this week, Alabama is second from the bottom in taxes per capita. And we would be first except South Carolina's economy fell off a bigger cliff than ours did. As the Birmingham News points out, our taxes don't feel like the second lowest in the nation, because the Alabama tax structure is so unfair: The bottom 80 percent of taxpayers in Alabama, who earn up to $78,000 a year, pay more than twice the percentage of their incomes in state and local taxes than do the top 1 percent of income earners. Those top earners, with an average yearly income of almost $1.2 million, pay 4 percent of that income in state and local taxes. The lowest 20 percent of earners (average income $10,400) pay 10.2 percent; the second lowest 20 percent (average income $21,000) pay 10.5 percent; the middle 20 percent (average income $34,600) pay 9.5 percent; and the fourth 20 percent (average income $59,300) pay 8.2 percent of their incomes.
What's the problem with low taxes? Low taxes buy us low services. Here's the argument from a Christian perspective: Maybe it's time for us to look at what is in our best interest and then put people in office who are willing to make it happen. Then we must have the resolve to pay for those things that will make our society a blessing not just for some of us, but all of us.
Do we want to be like a third world country, or not? Because that's where we're headed, and the only thing keeping us afloat now is federal largesse. |
