Take a step toward tax fairness

The Alabama Legislature has an opportunity to make food more affordable and to make the state’s tax system fairer.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives will debate legislation that would remove the 4-percent state sales tax on groceries, as well as removing income tax on some of the poorest families.

The Senate may consider the same issues if it can get past a debate on a comparatively trivial issue, Macon County bingo.

Among all states, only Alabama and Mississippi charge full sales tax on groceries and give no rebates to poor people, according to Alabama Arise, a group that lobbies for the poor.

Food is a necessity of life, and its cost is more of a burden on the poor than the rich because it’s a larger percentage of the poor’s incomes. The state should remove this grocery tax (and then localities should remove their own food sales taxes, but that’s an issue for another day).

The legislation would raise the smallest income taxed for a family of four to $20,000 a year from $12,600 — putting a little more fairness into a tax system that generally favors people with higher incomes.

Of course, the lost revenue must come from somewhere unless the state plans to cut public services. In this case, the state would eliminate the state income-tax deduction for federal income taxes paid, which is most beneficial to high-income people.

House Minority Leader Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said he’d rather see the House take up other tax proposals from Gov. Bob Riley instead of this one.

Eliminating the grocery tax “would just take taxes from one segment and put them on another segment,” he said.

That’s right. It would shift taxes to people who can afford them and from people who can ill afford them. That’s why it’s the right thing to do.

The people will get to vote on this legislation if the Legislature passes it, because it requires an amendment to the state constitution. The Legislature ought to put the issue before the people.