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Thursday, July 03, 2003

Alabama, Taxes, The Bible

Apparently, the Governor of Alabama thinks the Bible is instructing him to raise taxes in his state.

    Is it robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, or a tithe taken from the wealthy to help the poor?

    Whichever you believe, it all adds up to a proposed $1.2 billion tax increase for the wealthiest taxpayers in Alabama, if Gov. Bob Riley gets his way.

    He says his Christian faith makes him sure this is the right thing to do.

Now I’m not disputing that Jesus said that we should help others. He did, several times, in fact. But did he mean that the government should do it or that we as individuals should do it.

I don’t know that the Governor needs to use Scripture to back up his point.

    Reuters reports that in Alabama, nearly everyone pays state taxes, even families earning less than $5,000 a year. Those earning less than $13,000 pay a much larger percentage in state and local taxes than those at the top of the income ladder.

    And so, Gov. Riley is out to rectify the situation with his proposed tax increase.

It does sound to me like rectifying the situation is exactly what he’s trying to do. Just call a spade a spade - past administrations screwed up by passing flawed state tax laws. So he’s encouraging the voters and legistators to correct that mistake. Because in this case, it doesn’t seem right that people who are making that little money should be paying a higher percentage in taxes than those who are making more.

Posted by at 12:13 PM
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