Rep. Wren Puts Forth A Counter-Proposal on State Sales Tax

Well, my State Rep. Greg Wren stepped forward with an interesting new proposal to eleminate the four percent sales tax on food…

“As the sponsor of the 2002 and 2008 Constitutional Rainy Day Accounts for the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and the General Fund, I believe the Sales Tax Fairness Act of 2009 will allow the Legislature to pass a responsible tax reform measure which removes regressive tax on food, maintains the fundamental growth needs of the ETF, ensures the ETF will not be forced int proration and does not increase taxes on any Alabama taxpayer,” he said, in a press release.

“I believe there are House and Senate members willing to place people over politics and sound tax policy over class and political finger-pointing.”

Wren’s bill would remove 1 percent of the state sales tax on food after two consecutive years of minimum 3 percent growth in the ETF. If the state’s ETF growth exceeds 3 percent for four consecutive years, the entire 4 percent sales tax would be repealed after six fiscal years.

Hmmmm…so do we take the chance that we’ll never get the repeal passed and reject this proposal, or take it and say, well at least it may happen some time in the next decade? I will definitely need to ponder this and get some more information. I certainly prefer Rep. Knight’s proposal because of the chance to get the sales tax removed now with full replacement of the revenue in today’s dollars, but if we aren’t going to get that, is this acceptable?

South Union Street – Montgomery Republican Introduces Sales Tax Bill.

UPDATE: I previously wrote an erroneous headline. This is not THE Republican counter-proposal, it’s different than the one the caucus is pushing. I congratulate Rep. Wren for stepping into the fray on his own. I certainly prefer his proposal over the one being offered by the caucus. A tax credit will not help as many Alabamians as the outright elimination of the tax.

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