Currently, the Alabama Legislature is in a Special Session debating a 10 cent increase to the state gas tax. While most of the legislature, along with groups from businesses, trucking, construction, and economic recruiting is in full support, average citizens are mostly up in arms. And I can understand why this is, because the Alabama government loves to stick to the poor while the rich barely contributes to taxes in Alabama.
Average people like me and you will soon pay 10 cents more per gallon, while also paying a high sales tax on everything including groceries. Where I live, the sales tax is 10%, which is too high in my opinion. But while people raise cane on social media, our lawmakers will slam this gas tax increase through in record speed. I see the others on social media who want to vote on a lottery and marijuana. But let’s be real, that will never happen in Alabama.
On this post, I want to run down what I believe would happen if Alabama citizens got their way and we had to vote in a special election on the gas tax increase and other avenues to increase revenue for infrastructure in Alabama. Let’s start with the big one.
1. Increase the gas tax 10 cents
If we had a say to increase our gas tax 10 cents, it would be voted down by a wide margin. This tax would only hurt the poor the most, and there are plenty of people who feel that we are taxed enough already. So if we had a chance to vote on a new gas tax, it would be shot down.
2. Start an Alabama Lottery
The calls on social media to allow us to vote on a lottery are enormous! But let’s be real here, it would never pass, and here’s why. For starters, you would have every church pastor screaming about why a lottery is not a good idea. Mega churches would spend money on ads telling us to vote no on a lottery. And you would have special interests from the surrounding states bribing legislators to vote no on a lottery, I’m not holding my breath.
3. Legalize marijuana and tax it
This is also something I support, but it would never see the light of day in Alabama. Once again, churches would ram the whole marijuana is bad message down our throats. People would see ads telling us why marijuana is evil. And you would have those in the medical fields giving money to lawmakers to vote no. This is not the outcome I would want.
4. Agree to property tax fairness
So if we can’t get revenue from a gas tax, lottery, or marijuana, maybe our lawmakers would finally change our tax codes so those large timber land owners and farmers would pay their fair share of property taxes. Alabama’s property taxes are way cheap, and every state surrounding us has a much higher property tax. But don’t hold your breath on seeing any changes.
There is such a major stranglehold in Montgomery when it comes to special interest groups, and these groups would never allow higher property taxes on timber owners and farmers, because the whole ole mighty dollar is more important than a functioning Alabama government.
5. Agree to income tax fairness
Just like the property tax issues, Alabama’s income taxes are very low. Income taxes are capped at a small level, and that means those rich people don’t have to pay much income taxes in Alabama. If you are hoping for any changes in this, I have some horrible news. Lobbyists and special interest groups in Montgomery would laugh this off, and continue to tell lawmakers that they like to hoard their cash.
6. Agree to prison system changes
Just in case you have been living under a rock, Alabama is facing a prison system crisis. Our prisons are overcrowded, too violent, and inadequate to serve the people inside. I have the feeling that if we got to vote on changes to the prison systems that would save money, it would be voted down. And why you ask, because we have too many in Alabama with this “lock them up and throw away the key” attitude. Let’s see how that attitude work when the federal government intervenes.
7. Agree to education spending
Thankfully our education budget is not broke and is giving schools the funding they need while teachers get a pay raise. But, there are those across Alabama that would love to blow this up. They want to combine both budgets, and if that happened, it would allow our lawmakers to raid our education funding to pay for other things. Alabama is doing some great things when it comes to education, this should never be blown up because of the whole “taxes are evil” mantra.
8. Agree to expand Medicaid
Alabama has had chances to bring in millions of dollars to help with healthcare. Instead, lawmakers think Obamacare is evil, and have refused to expand. The results, rural hospitals are closing, mental health is severely lacking, and poor people are going without medical care that they need. It’s basically saying that if you are poor, sick, or have mental problems, hurry up and die already!
Money could be used for other things like infrastructure if we chose to bring in money to expand healthcare in Alabama. Instead, we continue to see people get sicker and poorer.
9. Agree to burn Alabama to the ground
If this was on a ballot in a special election, this option would win. We have plenty of people in Alabama who would rather see our government just burn to the ground. Who cares about educating children, who cares about police or fire protection, who cares about prisoners, who cares about protecting health in Alabama, who cares about our infrastructure. The overall mantra from numerous people in Alabama is just close everything in government down and privatize it.
If we chose this option, many schools would close. Also, roads would crumble and highways would become unsafe to drive on, and I hope you know how to use a gun, fight a fire, and do surgery on someone who needs it as all police, fire, and medical protection ceases. Also, I hope you know how to generate electricity and get water delivered to your home.
And I also hope you know how to make clothing, and hunt and cook, because all retail stores, grocery stores and restaurants would close down. Without a health department, these places can’t be open, no Chick-fil-A for you! And without electricity, water, and officials to monitor workplace safety, all businesses and industry closes down, everyone can live in poverty, including you, you, you, and certainly you!
Basically, if we chose to close Alabama’s government down, we become a third-world country and plunge back into the 1700’s. To sum things up, it’s not going to kill me or you to pay a little more at the gas pump. I wished more people in Alabama would quit listening to Yellowhammer News or Faux News and demand our lawmakers would pass taxes so the rich would pay their fair share, is it that hard to ask?
Categories: Politics Talk Stuff
