Alabama Votes No on Its Future
Alabama, my birth-place, voted no yesterday to a tax-plan pushed by their Republican governor. Now, if this were a G.W. Bush-styled tax plan that increases the tax burden on the poor while decreasing it on wealthy corporations, I’d cheer this defeat.
But this plan was different.
I probably disagree with Gov. Riley on almost everything except the wisdom of his defeated tax plan. He made a moral argument to Alabamians. He pointed out what most Republicans refuse to acknowledge. He said Alabama’s past tax policies have favored big lumber companies at the expense of the poorest Alabamians. He made arguments based on the Biblical view that we have a duty to the poor. Now, that’s a Republican who makes some sense for a change.
The money was to be used primarily for education, and would have improved Alabama’s dismal placement in those nation-wide rankings. But Alabamians succumbed to the lies of traditional Republicans and believed that any tax increase was a bad tax increase. They failed to see that re-organizing the tax burden was the right thing to do, and in that failure they voted no to their future. It’s very sad.
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