Let people vote on food tax

Montgomery Advertiser editorial

Once again Alabama legislators will have an opportunity to allow the people to vote on eliminating the state portion of the sales taxes on groceries, a highly regressive tax that hits hardest those working families least able to pay it.

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Birmingham poverty declines amid rise

Birmingham News article

The Brookings Institution today reports that the poverty rates in the city of Birmingham and in the rest of the seven-county metro area declined from 2000 to 2008, by 2.4 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively.

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Justice needs in Alabama

Anniston Star op-ed

By James L. Evans

In my column last week, I wrote in general terms about the difference between justice and charity. The piece concluded with a reference to the prophet Micah, who advised those desiring to please God to "love kindness and do justice." I received considerable response, but with a consistent theme. Almost all of those responding to the column wanted specific examples of what doing justice might look like.

As I began compiling some examples, mostly from Alabama since that's the world I live in, it occured to me that most of the resources I was using had been developed by Alabama Arise.

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Alabama taxes still lowest in the nation

Tuscaloosa News article

It comes as no surprise that Alabama's taxes are still the lowest in the nation, primarily because of relatively low property and income tax rates, according to the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.

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State has long way to go to make taxes fair

Tuscaloosa News editorial

The debate over sales, income and especially property taxes has gone on for years in Alabama, with proponents of a more progressive system saying a larger burden of the tax load should be shifted to ad valorem taxes, while defenders of the status quo say all we need is across-the-board cuts and everything will be fine.

But here are some sobering facts, released recently by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C.

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One in six Alabamians get funds for food

Birmingham News article

Nearly one in six Alabamians receive food assistance, according to the most recnet numbers available from the state Department of Human Resources.

The troubled economy is sending Alabamains in record numbers to sign up for help in feeding their families.

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Alabama Arise says decade marked by lost potential for workers in state

Associated Press article

An advocacy group's annual report says 2009 caps a decade of lost potential for Alabama workers.

The report released today by the Arise Citizens' Policy Project says years of solid productivity in the early part of the decade brought little change to Alabama's median wages and household income.

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Renters' rights

WSFA News special report

It's like buying a home without many of the financial strings attached. In this economy, renting is a popular choice. U.S. Census estimates show 103,867 people in the Montgomery metropolitan area live in rental units. According to these figures, that number accounts for nearly a third of the population in housing units.

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Prospects for tax fairness next year are iffy

Birmingham News editorial

Flash back to the 2006 legislative session.

An embarrassing national study fingered Alabama for having the nation's lowest income tax threshold -- the point at which people began paying state income tax -- and it wasn't even close. Alabama's threshold was just for a family of four; no other state's limit was below $10,000. Key Democratic and Republican officeholders talked of the need to do something to bring relief to the state's poor. And this was happening at a time many of them were seeking re-election.

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