Budgets
Budgets are more than numbers on a page. They’re reflections of our state and national priorities, and of our willingness as a society to work together to make those goals a reality. Strong investments in vital public infrastructure like education, health care and child care can help remove barriers to opportunity for struggling Alabamians and promote shared prosperity for everyone in our state. Arise’s budget analysis examines the importance of investing in these services and protecting them from harmful, shortsighted cuts.
Featured Resources
Personal Stories
‘Resilient communities begin with healthy people, period’
Warren Alan Tidwell has spent years doing work that depends on trust. He does the slow, often unseen work of bringing people together across differences after an emergency.
Letters & Testimony
Alabama Arise among 44 groups urging U.S. senators to delay SNAP cost shift
Unless Congress acts, Alabama will have to provide a huge amount of additional state funding next year to maintain food assistance benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). HR 1, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, shifted significant SNAP costs from the federal government to states in an effort to finance large tax [...]
Handbook
The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook
We’re all in this together. All of us – people of every race, gender, age, income and background – benefit from a network of services from our local, state and national governments. From garbage collection to fire protection, from roads to schools, from public health to public safety, our tax dollars support the daily upkeep [...]
Handbook
The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook – Introduction
The common good We’re all in this together. All of us – people of every race, gender, age, income and background – benefit from a network of services from our local, state and national governments. From garbage collection to fire protection, from roads to schools, from public health to public safety, our tax dollars support [...]
Handbook
The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook – Budget Overview
How does state spending work? One state, two separate budgets Of the Legislature’s $39.1 billion in total appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2022, about $20 billion came under the Education Trust Fund (ETF) Budget Act for education-related services. Another $19 billion came under the General Fund (GF) Budget Act for all other services. Lawmakers also [...]
Handbook
The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook – Tax Overview
How do state taxes work? Most people would consider a tax system to be unfair if those who earned less paid a higher percentage of their income in taxes than those who earned more. But that’s exactly how regressive taxes work. As we’ve seen, Alabamians contribute to the funding of public services by paying taxes [...]
Handbook
The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook – Income Tax
Feeling the pinch Alabama’s nearly flat income tax can’t offset our regressive sales taxes. As a result, the lowest-paid 20% of Alabama residents pay more than twice the share of their incomes in state and local taxes that the top 1% pay. It’s an upside-down tax system: It reduces the consumer spending that fuels economic [...]
Handbook
The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook – Sales Taxes
Sales taxes: The key driver of Alabama’s upside-down tax system Should wealthy people pay at a lower tax rate than everyone else? Most Alabamians would answer with a resounding “no.” Yet that’s exactly the result that our state’s tax system produces. Families with low incomes in Alabama pay more than twice the share of income [...]
Handbook
The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook – Property Taxes
How do Alabama’s property taxes work? The 1901 Alabama constitution established a property tax of 6.5 mills to help fund the state government. That was 30 years before our state had income or sales taxes. More than a century later, the state property tax rate has not changed. Property tax is applied to real estate, [...]
Handbook
The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook – Business Taxes
What taxes do businesses pay in Alabama? How does Alabama tax businesses? Business taxes provide the important “fourth leg of the stool” of our tax system. Alabama’s business taxes were restructured in 1999 after courts ruled the old system unconstitutional because it taxed out-of-state companies at a higher rate. Today’s structure relies on two taxes: [...]
