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Letters & Testimony
Alabama Arise testimony against efforts to water down meaningful Public Service Commission reform
Arise’s Dev Wakeley testified Tuesday before the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee in support of the House-passed version of HB 475, and against proposed Senate changes through a substituted bill to weaken HB 475. As originally passed in the House, HB 475 by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would have required the Public [...]
Blog
Alabama should expand healthy food access. SB 57 isn’t the answer.
Alabama should not be in the business of telling people what to eat simply because they have low incomes. But SB 57 proposes to do just that. The bill would limit food choice for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, by forbidding the use of SNAP benefits to [...]
News Releases
New Alabama Arise handbook explains how state taxes and budgets work – and how to improve them
Alabama should reform its outdated, imbalanced tax system to help working people get ahead and to ensure adequate funding for vital services like education and health care, a new Alabama Arise handbook released Thursday concludes. Legislators also should implement several changes to make the state’s budgeting process more responsive and transparent, the handbook finds. In [...]
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, [...]