Elected leaders fail to recognize needs of poor

Editorial
Published: May 12, 2008

The working poor in this state can’t seem to catch a break. A bill that would remove the state’s 4-percent sales tax on grocery items met reservation on the Senate floor last week and appears to be on the brink of failure, at least for this session.

The proposed constitutional amendment, sponsored by Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, would also raise the threshold where a family of four starts paying the state income tax from $12,600 to $20,000 in annual income.

Citizens are citizens, regardless of economic status, but for a family of four with a household income of $12,600 to have any kind of decent life, they should not be paying state income tax, anyway. They’re taxed enough as it is just trying to make ends meet with the little they have. They are the working poor, and they need a break.

Leave it to leaders in Montgomery to look the other way.

It’s sad that legislators who gave themselves a 60-percent raise for a part-time job last year can’t take care of this portion of Alabama’s population.

“To me, this is a socialized approach to tax reform, and I cannot be for that,” Senate Minority Leader Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, he said.

Socialized? This bill does far more to help people who need it most than equate to socialism. Alabama isn’t a charity, and we realize the government is often run like a business, but when your people are suffering, it’s also government responsibility to step in and make lives better for its constituents. It’s a government of the people, for the people. Right? Wrong.

When times are as difficult as they are, people who need tax breaks the most on the simplest and most necessary items at a grocery store cannot get them. Bread? Pay tax. Milk? Tax. Baby food? Ante up.

No wonder Alabamians’ faith in their state government is at an all-time low. When these elected leaders who are entitled to look out for the welfare of the state can’t do something to help the most needy among us, it’s a sad day.