3 Comments so far ↓

• RPC // Apr 20, 2008 at 11:55 pm

  Yes, I support John Knight’s bill to remove the state sales tax from groceries. That tax is unfair, and takes a bigger bite from the paychecks of people trying to work their way out of poverty. You’d think the state would want to help them succeed.

  The NBC 13 story is disappointing because it missed the point of closing the loophole that allows deductions of federal income tax payments. The income tax is supposed to have a mild redistributive effect, so those who have the most, pay the most, and those who earn little pay nothing. This loophole amounts to a tax break for wealthy taxpayers, and it’s an appropriate way to make up the lost revenue from the grocery tax. That’s because it will raise taxes on those most able to pay. The alternative is to shift the burden to the middle class — or to cancel the effect of the grocery tax break by raising everyone’s taxes on something else.

  Of course the irresponsible thing to do would be to simply cut taxes without doing anything to make up for the lost revenue. We’re already facing the prospect of proration, so that would be even more irresponsible than usual.

• Andre // Apr 21, 2008 at 8:13 am

  The good news is that it will potentially bring more money into the state’s coffers if it passes, as I have a strange feeling that there’s more money that’s being left on the table as a result of the federal income tax reduction. The bad news is that there will be some that won’t see the overall benefit.

• RPC // Apr 28, 2008 at 2:18 pm

  In the past week I’ve seen comments in papers around the state that the Alabama Republican Party is mobilizing against this measure, and the local press is passively quoting them. Reporters don’t seem to know how to describe the Knight Plan, so it looks like the plan’s enemies will get to set the terms of debate. The message is: “It won’t make a difference, you’ll just have to pay higher income tax to make up for it.” It’s a bone-headed argument, but likely to work.