http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1142590777109270.xml&coll=2 – Editorial criticizes House of Representatives for refusing to vote on measure that would have allow citizen initiative and referendum.
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1142590680109250.xml&coll=3 – Mobile Senator formally asks for Ethics Committee review of name change as bill’s sponsor.
http://www.al.com/opinion/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1142590741109250.xml&coll=3 – Editorial supports ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, but not as a constitutional amendment.
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1142590709109290.xml&coll=1 Deadly force bill carried over in House, filibuster of Senate bills ends as Brody bill dies in Senate Judiciary Committee.
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060317/tax.shtml - House approves income tax cut bill.
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060317/panel.shtml - House Judiciary Committee gives approval to measure that would pardon hundreds violation of segregation-era laws.
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060317/unborn.shtml - Senate reject procedural rule to move unborn child act to different committee.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060317/NEWS/603170312/1012/editorial1 - Editorial praises House vote on income tax reform as a “step in the right direction.”
FROM THE ANNISTON STAR:
Advocates for poor: Tax reform plan is ‘a great start’
By Brian Lyman
Star Capital Correspondent
03-17-2006
MONTGOMERY — Nan Christian cut a check Wednesday for a single mother with four children.
“The check was for $112.91,” said Christian, the executive director of Interfaith Ministries. “But she had already gotten help from another source for $80. This was to keep the power on.”
It’s a common activity for Interfaith Ministries. The House of Representatives Thursday voted 101-0 to approve a tax package that could put money to pay for that power bill back in the mother’s hands.
The legislation, a Democratic modification of a tax compromise reached by Gov. Bob Riley and Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, increases deductions for those making less than $20,000 a year, and completely phases out taxes for a family of four making $12,500 or less.
“I am so tickled to hear that,” Christian said. “I would like for it to have been at a higher level. But this is a great, great start.”
The plan that passed would return about $269 to the pockets of a family of four making $15,000 a year. Groups that work with or advocate for the poor say that money would pay for food, clothing and other necessities those families otherwise would do without.
“It may not seem like a lot to somebody else, but it would mean shoes and clothes,” said Maudine Holloway, executive director of Community Enabler in Anniston, which distributes necessities to 5,000 people a year. “It might help with school supplies.”
Alabama currently begins taxing a family of four at $4,600 of income, the lowest minimum income threshold in the country. The bill that passed the House would raise the single deduction for those making $20,000 or less from $2,000 to $2,500, the single head of household deduction from $2,000 to $4,700, and the deduction for married couples from $4,000 to $7,500. It also raises the child deduction from $300 to $1,000 in that income range.
The increased deductions raise the minimum income tax threshold level for that hypothetical family from $4,600 to $12,500.
“In some cases, we have families living on $500 or $600 that have multiple children,” Christian said. “And in many instances we have grandparents raising grandchildren. Any assistance really helps.”
Christian and Holloway, however, noted that they encounter very few two-parent, two-child households in their line of work. Seeing single parents with multiple children is far more common.
“They’re primarily single-parent households,” Holloway said. “And if they’re not single-parent households, either one of (the parents) is out of work, or both are out of work.”
Single-parent households would see slightly lower benefits from the plan than two-parent ones. Under the bill, a single-parent household with two children would see its threshold start at $8,200 – more than double the current level of $4,100, but still well below the two-parent threshold of $12,500.
A single-parent family that made $15,000 a year would save approximately $205 under the House plan passed Thursday. But whether its $205 or $260, said Christian, the money would help a great deal.
“(It) doesn’t sound like much to a family making $75,000 or $80,000 a year, but for a family living on $10,000 or less, any amounts helps that much more.”
Debate
Although the bill passed the House overwhelmingly, Republicans introduced eight amendments designed to expand the benefits to taxpayers making more than $20,000 a year. One would have changed the bill to a tax proposal introduced by Riley in his State of the State address last January that would have increased the threshold from $4,600 to $15,000 over five years.
That drew harsh criticism from Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, the sponsor of the house legislation.
“The substitute is a promise that, well, if we do well in our economy, we do well in our Education Trust Fund, and if we feel like it, we’ll have a tax cut,” he said. “How do you tell that to a person making $15,000 a year?”
The House plan would cost the Education Trust Fund about $60 million next year. The earlier compromise reached between Riley and Knight would have cost $133 million – and that, said Rep. Lea Fite, D-Jacksonville, was why he supported Knight’s plan.
“With my conservative values, I would have to vote for the less (expensive) plan,” he said.
Fite voted for the plan, along with Reps. Steve Hurst, D-Munford, Richard Lindsey, D-Centre, and Randy Wood, R-Anniston.
Rep. Barbara Boyd, D-Anniston, was not in the House on Thursday due to an illness in her family, but was recorded as voting yes on the bill.
The plan increases the dependent deduction from $300 to $500 for families making $20,000 to $100,000. Families of four making $30,000 to $100,000 would see their taxes drop only $20, with $10 for each child. Republicans quickly pounced on that fact, accusing Democrats of seeing families making $30,000 or more as “millionaires.”
“We have given raises like there’s no tomorrow,” said Rep. DuWayne Bridges, R-Valley, referring to salary increases for teachers, retirees and state employees that have passed or are pending in the legislature. “Now who do you think is paying for these raises? It’s the people of Alabama, and you’re voting against a tax break for them.”
The tax-cut plan may not cover a majority of taxpayers. The Alabama Department of the Revenue says that 540,000 returns filed in 2004, out of 1.7 million total, reported income of $20,000 or less – about 31 percent of the total. 251,000 reported income between $20,000 to $30,000, and 850,000 – about 50 percent – reported making $30,000 or more.
Some 807,615 returns listed at least one dependent in tax year 2004, about 47 percent of the total.
Knight said he would have liked to have seen the threshold go higher, but that the costs to the Education Trust Fund needed to be limited. The point was echoed after the vote by House Speaker Seth Hammett, D-Andalusia, who said the state needed to fund education to build a “world-class school system.”
“We’ve gone as far as we could this time and hopefully we’ll go further next year,” Hammett said.
Kimble Forrister, state coordinator of Alabama Arise, a coalition of church and community groups that worked with Knight on the tax plan, said the $20 number was accurate, but slightly higher than what would have been returned in the compromise plan reached by Riley and Knight.
“The Riley-Knight plan would have been only $5 (per child),” he said. “So it’s a small step. We want to do better with middle-income earners next year.”
The tax plan now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Based on numbers Interfaith has gathered, Christian estimates that about 36 percent of households in Anniston make $20,000 or less, with the percentage going up to 44.4 percent for households with a single-female head.
Christian, like others, said she would like to see the threshold even higher, but saw it as a good first step. “That really is not much,” she said. “But I’m just grateful for the folks under the $20,000 limit.”
