Taxes are the tools that Americans use to pay for education, public health, transportation and other elements of the common good. But in Alabama, the tax system is upside down, with low- and middle-income people paying twice the share of their income in state and local taxes that the top 1 percent pay.

This updated fact sheet looks at the different ways that states collect revenues to pay for public services and examines some of the differences that place Alabama’s tax system out of line with the way most other states do things.