Do the right thing to fend off the courts

A new lawsuit in federal court is yet another example of trying to get the courts to force Alabama to correct injustices when its own lawmakers won’t.

Public school students in Lawrence and Sumter counties are suing, saying that property taxes do not bring in enough money for elementary schools and high schools. This shortfall hurts black students more than others, according to the plaintiffs.

Civil-rights lawyer Jim Blacksher, who represents the plaintiffs, says the suit would force the state to reform its tax system.

“Local school systems in Alabama cannot raise funds for their schools that come anywhere near the support the schools need,” Mr. Blacksher said, as quoted by The Birmingham News. “Property taxes are taxes on wealth. Sales taxes are not.”

The suit says that not only are Alabama’s property taxes the lowest in all 50 states, but they also give breaks to the wealthy, such as owners of forest land. It says the state relies too much on sales taxes for school money. Sales taxes are regressive, meaning that they hit the poor harder than the rich.

You could say that the tax system victimizes poor people directly by taking their money, and indirectly by denying them the education they need to make more money.

Alabama’s tax system does need reform. But the Legislature responds more often to people with wealth and lobbying power than to the poor. So it often fails to do the right thing. In recent years, it has made income taxes slightly fairer. Other good proposals are pending, such as removing sales tax on food.

Decades ago, the late federal judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. wrote about the “ ‘the Alabama punting syndrome’ … the tendency of state officials to ‘punt’ their problems into federal courts.”

The punting syndrome is alive and well. The Legislature could head off court interference at any time, though, by making needed reforms on its own.