Alabama boasts lowest taxes in nation

[SoCalDem]

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-stories/2009/11/alabama_boasts_lowest_taxes_in.html

By David White -- The Birmingham News
November 01, 2009, 6:00AM

MONTGOMERY -- Alabama residents and companies paid less in taxes than people and businesses in any other state in the 2007 fiscal year, based on total state and local taxes paid per resident, according to a review of U.S. Census Bureau reports. Even taking into account that incomes in Alabama were lower than in most of the country, people and companies here had a relatively low tax burden. Among the 50 states, Alabama had the third-lowest average state and local tax collections per person as a percentage of personal income. Relatively low taxes help attract businesses and retirees to the state, Gov. Bob Riley said.



But teachers' lobbyist Paul Hubbert said Alabama's relatively low taxes also limit governments' ability to provide good schools, roads and other services. Alabama's state and local governments collected an average of $2,909 in taxes per person in fiscal 2007, according the Census Bureau's most recent report on state and local taxes nationwide and its state population estimates for July 2007. Taxes tallied by the bureau included personal and corporate income taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes and property taxes. For the country, the median state and local taxes collected per person was $4,011; it was more in 25 states and less in 25 states. Alabama's state government and city, county and other local governments collected a total of $13.46 billion in taxes in fiscal 2007. That was $1,102 less in taxes per person than the 50-state median. If Alabama governments had gotten the median amount per person, they would have had an additional $5.1 billion.

Matter of pride

Riley said having relatively low taxes is good, "because it really does make a difference when we have people that are retirees moving into the state, when you look at different businesses that are looking at coming into the state." "Taxes will be a major part of that decision," he said. State Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said, "I think that's something we ought to take pride in, that we have low taxes." "I'm just not a big believer in the redistribution of wealth and taking from some and letting the government spend it," said Hubbard, who chairs the state Republican Party.

State Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, said Alabamians like low taxes.

snip

[marmar]

1. Would "foolish pride" be too much of an understatement?

:dunce:

[Burma Jones]

2. And this is why Alabama has the highest median income, life expectancy and educational attainment

levels in the entire USA, right?

:puke:

[gorfle]

21. Well...

Huntsville has the highest per-capita PHDs in the country, so I'm told.

I live here and make more money than I ever have in my life, about $90K a year. And I have a college degree.

[asjr]

24. Huntsville is a state of its own. I lived there

and loved it. Can't say that for the rest of the state.

[Burma Jones]

25. Cambridge, MA (Harvard and MIT) has the highest per-capita PhD population in the US

With Ann Arbor, MI in second, Berkeley, CA in third.

Cary, NC says THEY have the most PhDs per-capita for towns over 75,000

I've heard people touting Bethesda, MD as having the most per-capita PhD population in a town lacking a University nearby.

Huntsville, basically a Federal Government research enclave, is what makes Alabama not Kentucky.......
Not that I would ever knock Federal Government research enclaves, I live in one, and it's great, our county has the highest percentage (29.2%) of residents over 25 years old who hold a post-graduate degree.


I'm glad you like it there, I got nothing against Alabama, I just think bragging that you don't spend money on education and transportation kind of stinks.....

[brendan120678]

36. I was just in Huntsville for a business conference last week.

The weather wasn't the best, but it was a pretty nice area.

[Atman]

3. Oh boy, let's all strive to be like Alabama!

Among the lowest ranked in the nation -- if not THE lowest -- in nearly every category, from education to health care. We don't even have to mention Alabama's wonderful history in the area of race relations. Yeah, Alabama! Low taxes, and low just about everything else, too.

.

[Kalyke]

17. Taxes are low because wages are low.

You can't expect people earning an average salary of nearly $18,000 to pay tons in taxes.

It's a lose-lose, but, as it stands, you can't really burden someone making that little with a lot of taxation (outside of the stupid, regressive sales tax, that is).

[liberaltrucker]

4. Yep, we just LOVE that 9-10% sales tax

:argh:

Disclaimer: I relocated to PA in June, 2009.

[angrycarpenter]

5. I live in Ala.

and our roads suck and road projects take many years to complete. They have been four laneing a twenty mile stretch of road near my house for going on 16 years now.

[Burma Jones]

28. Way back when I was a teenager, I used to drive from DC to Houston (and back) to see my Mom

It was a nice drive along very nice Interstates down I-81 in Virginia, skirting the Smokeys near Knoxville, a short jog through Georgia and then, because Alabama was taking its own sweet time finishing I-55, a terrible slog along US 11 through Alabama, dodging Semis trying to pass slower traffic, keeping an ever watchful eye out for speed traps, inching your way through Birmingham....Then, you got to Mississippi and it was Interstates all the way to Houston.........

We just figured local governments were holding Interstate construction up to reap speeding ticket cash.......

[MrScorpio]

6. I went to an Air Force class in Alabama back in 2003. spent six weeks in Montgomery

I was there during that whole Ten Commandments debacle at the Alabama Supreme Court. Oh, boy!

Downtown Montgomery looks exactly the same as it did in archival film footage of the civil rights struggle from fifty years ago. Only it's in color.

I also saw some good old boys drive around a local parking lot waving the stars and bars in a pickup truck for no apparent reason, other than to be good old boys waving the stars and bars in a pickup truck for no apparent reason.

That being said, my experience made me realize three things about Alabama:

1. I like Atlanta, Georgia. Great town.

2. Thank God that I was stationed at Langley AFB, Virginia at the time.

and...

3. I realized exactly why my great grand parents fled Chambers County, Alabama to move to Detroit ninety years ago.


I really don't things to get any better.

[Toots]

7. I question this study

Alaska has no state income nor sales tax and my local sales tax is five percent. I see no way in hell we pay 18% in state taxes..

[SoCalDem]

8. Um.. it's not a "study".. It's DATA from the census bureau

There's a lot more to the article.. Like how the "retirees" they covet, are NOT the solution, and how the schools are suffering, as well as the infrastructure..

It only proves that if you aim low..you end up at the bottom:(

[HillbillyBob]

29. I used to live in Nazibama....

I left never to return and I don't even keep up with nuz from there, I still have a couple friends there I encourage to move away.

[HughMoran]

12. No property taxes?

Do you have property taxes?

[Toots]

18. Property owners do pay property tax to their local municipality but

It isn't any more(10 mil) than other places I have heard of and it is only for property owners. Alaskans also pay tobacco and alcohol gasoline taxes but it isn't any more than most other states as well. I guess if one figures property tax into rent expense and all the other add on taxes and not count the permanent fund check every year. I just do not feel over taxed and have never heard that as an issue in this very red state..

[HughMoran]

23. Small population, relatively high tax rate

We don't have income tax in NH, but I know the numbers they are using account for property taxes.

[Atman]

15. It's pretty basic, really; fewer people in AK to carry the tax burden.

Now check out my state, Connecticut. Lots of people in an area that could fit into the back of Todd Palin's snow machine, yet we're way up there on the list. Now them's some taxes!

.

[doc03]

16. How can that be I thought Alaskans all received checks

from the state? I have heard for years Alaskans don't pay tax they just get royalty checks from the oil companies.

[WyLoochka]

27. Wyoming too

No state income tax. 5% local sales tax. I guess we're collecting more in extraction industry excise taxes than I had thought - which would be good if true.

[Viking12]

31. The figure is taxes collected.....it doesn't necessarily specify source.

In Alaska's case they collect taxes from the extraction industries, not the citizens. The rest of the country pays your taxes for you.

[Winterblues]

38. If it is extraction taxes from the oil industry then they pay our taxes and not you guys..

I just can't understand why all the other states allow the extraction of resourses without adequate taxation.. You all should be having your taxers paid for you as well or is Alaska just that much more attuned to their people?

[HughMoran]

9. Interestingly, the column on the right says that my state is lowest based on % of income

Which is OK here because incomes are much higher than in Alabama.

[SoCalDem]

13. That's a good thing, since it shows you have a balanced economy

your state receives funding from other sources that the individual taxation. Perhaps your corporations & agriculture are paying a somewhat fairer share

[HughMoran]

14. It's kind of a mixed bag

Since we have no income tax, property taxes are quite high which makes living on a fixed income rather difficult here. Stories of old people being driven from their homes due to property taxes rising so rapidly are common.

[Fumesucker]

10. A song to fit the OP..

http://popup.lala.com/popup/360569479530774122

[RT Atlanta]

11. State Constitution needs help

One of the problems there is that, if I am recalling correctly, the property taxes are established in the state constitution - meaning a constitutional amendment is necessary to raise them (which is extremely difficult to do).

I went to Auburn and there is much to love about the state and its people, but there are many areas (racial tolerance, public education, etc.) where the state can be vastly "improved" in opinion.

[denem]

19. Alaska? Highest taxes in the Union. I don't remember Palin

talking about that too much.

[Blue_In_AK]

41. It's taxes against the oil companies.

The tax rates were increased on the producers under the ACES plan that Sarah claims as her own, but which was really the idea of the Democrats in the state legislature.

[ThoughtCriminal]

20. Oh, then they must be the most prosperous!!

Not!

[Toucano]

34. +1 n-t

[old mark]

22. Pennsylvania has a website boasting that their social service employees make less money

and work with fewer employees that any state but Alabama. As someone who retired from PA civil service in a social services job, I certainly know that is true. The services to the poor and sick must be terrible in Alabama - I guess they have church groups do much of it.

Pennsylvania is one of the worst states for social services - I'm not slamming Alabama, I'm disgusted that PA is proud of this. We also have one of the most corrupt state legislatures going, and have had that since the beginning of the USA.

mark

[Brigid]

26. Reese Whitherspoon said it best in "Sweet Home Alabama":

"You need a passport to come down here."

[HillbillyBob]

35. Public services were non existant for all practical purposes

when I lived there. When I returned from the Navy and while trying to find a job I checked in to Unemployment so I could at least eat, no help there I did get 8$ a month in food stamps,i know that is federal but you have to deal with state agencies I don't recall how it was all set up, just that I was going hungry and had no heat in the cheap apt I was renting it got pretty chilly in that attic that winter when the arctic freight train cold wind blew. I know not like a Northern winter, but if you have no heat, few clothes..you can die of hypothermia in 35 degree weather, just not as quick as -20.

[old mark]

37. Cold and hungry is bad, no matter where you are at the time.

Happened to me in California.

mark

[WyLoochka]

30. These figures are not correct

In Wyoming there are no personal income taxes and my local sales tax is 5%. According to the Wyoming Taxpayers Association, Wyoming’s personal tax burden is the second lowest in the nation. Wyoming’s major yearly personal taxes are about 4 percent of income - definitely not 14.36% as the chart shows.

This chart takes all taxes collected, no matter the source, and then breaks the total down per person - even when significant taxes are not being collected from individuals.

"Who pays taxes in Wyoming? Wyoming’s largest source of revenue is mineral extraction with the second being the tourism industry. This means citizens and businesses have one of the lowest tax burdens in the country.

In 2002, Mining and Extraction contributed $4.49 billion to Wyoming Gross State Product or 26.74% of all private industry in Wyoming. Mineral Production is taxed as property tax, although it is in fact a severance tax based on market value of the natural resource being severed. Wyoming taxes minerals at 100% of value, unlike “other” property taxes, which are taxed at rates between 9.5 and 11.5%. In the end, because of higher valuations than other lands and higher tax rates, mineral production ends up paying 94.4% of all “property taxes” paid to the State of Wyoming." From Wyoming Business Council.

[Blue_In_AK]

43. Wyoming and Alaska are much the same in this respect.

You all have a permanent fund, as well, don't you, although it doesn't pay dividends to individuals?

[madmom]

32. So my first question is/was....

how much do they pay in federal taxes as compared to how much they get back in federal dollars? That, to me would be the tell all. How much are the rest of us paying so they can live this low-tax existence?

"State Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said, "I think that's something we ought to take pride in, that we have low taxes." "I'm just not a big believer in the redistribution of wealth and taking from some and letting the government spend it," said Hubbard, who chairs the state Republican Party."


So does that mean they don't take our federal dollars so they can make this low tax claim? Yeah right. All the rest of us are paying for this hype.


http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html

[watercolors]

33. Is it true sneior citizens do not have to pay

proerty taxes, I had a freind move there, and she gave that as thr reason?

[Winterblues]

39. The first one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of value is not taxed

if you are over sixty five...

[xultar]

40. In other news, Alabama ranks 48th in states where people want to go...for anything.

Alaska ranks 49th and Mississippi ranks 50th.

[Thickasabrick]

42. Isn't that like a toothless man boasting of no cavities? nt

[SoCalDem]

45. That was my take on the article.."boasting" was an odd word-choice n/t

[Arugula Latte]

44. My husband has been to 49 states.

Guess the one state he has never visited ...