Truer words have never been spoken.

To agree with others - I would like just a simple flat tax based on income - regardless of how high or low a person's income. No more State, city, sales, property, gas, business...etc taxes - just tax my income with no deductions.

BS!!! You do know property taxes aren't just "landowners" don't you? It's homes and businesses also. My home already goes up EVERY year for no reason. Most people don't realize this since their taxes come out with their home payment each month. Business tax goes up and they pass it on to consumers. So, property taxes goes up people will pay more for land tax and hunting leases, home tax, and business tax and goods consumed. Essentially, for a lot of people a 1% (or mill which most people don't understand) property tax increase would be a 1% income tax with everything going up. Why does education have to come from property taxes? The money is already there, just not being used wisely. The State needs to be run like a household when it comes to money. A household can't TELL their boss they need more money. We budget and make it work with what we have.

I guess I missed the part in the OP about it being for schools. I agree with y'all on the schools getting plenty.My dad and I was talking on this very same subject a few years back during another school crisis that we always have. We compared the adjusted per student spending in that days dollars between New Brockton School in 1955 and the current average in the state. I can't recall the exact amounts but I do remember the current amount was over 3 times the 1955 rate. Remember I said we adjusted 1955 dollars to current years dollars.
Property taxes are dirt cheap in this state (no pun intended) but the overall tax burden is not. I was thinking that there is definitely room to redistribute some of that burden but you guys are right. They would just raise the rate on property taxes and leave everything else where it is.

Simpleman, this is just a touchy subject with me. Not sales tax or income tax. Just property tax and inheritance tax. Now inheritance tax is not going to effect me but it too is BS.
Don't get me wrong, we have to have taxes for services we receive. Property taxes, well, if I could sell all my property for what they appraise it for, I would. I can hire an appraiser and fight it but I would be sending good money after bad. This is where current use on land helps. Inheritance tax, seriously, how can anyone justify that?? Others have mentioned flat tax or fair tax. Will never happen because the politicians can't screw the people enough. As I said, we HAVE to have taxes, but these 2 just get under my skin. Inheritance tax because its BS and property tax because of the way its done.

Simpleman, my ire is directed at you...unless these 2 tax ideas where yours.

Property is an investment. Why can a man choose to invest in stocks or bonds and not have to pay a tax on the value every year while a man who invests in property does? That doesn't make any sense to me.

I simply cannot understand how there hasn't been a violent revolt against our government about taxes period!!!!!!! I'm afraid to express just how I really feel about it, especially income taxes. Why do we need so much taxation???? Damn all this intelligent discussion about percentages and fine print minutia regarding what it does and doesn't do, and how to find this loophole or that exemption. Where's the talk about absolutely getting rid of 90% of all taxes period??? I want an opt out on Social Security even!!! I'll forfeit what I've already paid in, just let me out!!!!!....enough already.

I posted this in another thread before I realized a tax thread was already in progress.

We have to have taxes for services we receive but I agree there has to be a breaking point, same as with the national debt. The politicians mentality of "screw the mule, load the wagon" will eventually get it to where the mule (me and you) can't pull the wagon. It's gonna be ugly at that point for a lot of people.

I concur. I feel the same way, I just say it a bit more vehemently! LOL I just have a fundamental belief system that the government should not be in the business of financial assistance (to citizenry nor corporation), so an enormous percentage of those services could be abolished, thus the tax burden could be substantially reduced. If I could keep $20,000 more in my pocket, I would spend that money, thus the sales tax would make up (somewhat) for the reduction in income tax.

I disagree, renters pay rent and property owners pay property taxes. Just because a renter charges the tennant a little extra doesn't mean he can pass the responsibility on the the renter. That money is not earmarked for property taxes. Who is gonna lose their property if the taxes aren't payed? A renter has no skin in the game other than moving to another house/apartment. Two people ( renter and tennant ) can't both be paying taxes on the same property. One of them pays and one of them doesn't, period. I understand your logic, but in the end only one of them writes the check.
Wow! "Big land owners" need to pay more! Don't worry, it's coming soon enough I'm afraid.

There is no denying what you are saying is true. I just like to point out that raising ANY tax can and does affect EVERYONE. Since this is a hunting site, I usually like to mention the correlation between property taxes and lease prices.

Not NO, but Hell NO!! Nobody needs to pay more taxes, period. Everybody needs to pay less taxes. America does NOT have a tax problem, we have a services/spending problem. No household or business on the planet can operate like the American government does. In my home we don't extort extra income from our neighbors, we cut our bills. Government has NO business financially assisting citizenry, which is what a landslide majority of taxation is used for. Pave my streets, pay the cops and firemen, then get the $%^%@ out of my wallet.

I swear I'm not sure if most Americans are dumb@$$e$ or filthy rich zillionaires????....it's got to be one of those options for someone who doesn't miss their tax dollars. I just paid an obscene, virtually criminal amount in income taxes this past year, then still had to write the Feds a check for $7,800 more dollars!!! I'm just one guy!...ONE GUY!!!!!! There are 335,000,000 million Americans, and just little ol me paid THAT much??? Tax revenue is NOT the problem.

It's all good centralala. I don't like paying taxes either. I'm just like you though and realize that if any of us are going to have anything, we are going to have to pay for it.
If the politicians would make the hard decisions and reel this overspending in then I for one would be willing to dig deep to help save our nation and state. I'm just afraid we have nobody left with enough balls to do what needs doing and tell all the naysayers to sit down, shut up and enjoy the ride.

P.s. I want to pay the exact taxes that I owe the government. Not a penny more or less. I work in countries that have no organized tax structure to speak of.. Y'all don't want that third world crap I promise you. Am I a zillionaire, no. And I a dumb arse, maybe. But I know full well what the alternative looks like.
Be a patriot, pay your taxes, support your government, pray for your leaders and work to change it from within if you don't like. My rant is over, carry on.

Hillary is glad to see her 'it takes a village' doctrine has made it to Alabama. I want the school to teach math and english and leave the home values to mom and dad.

i support a consumer tax, similar to a sales tax. You get 100% of your income, when you purchase something then you pay taxes proportionate to the cost of what you purchased.ex. if you buy a $20k Hyundai then you pay perhaps a 10% federal tax and 5% state tax and so on, if you purchase a $150k Mercedes then you pay perhaps a 15% fed and 8% state tax. No loopholes, no deductions and every consumer pay taxes

No one (well, okay, maybe someone) is making a fidelitous argument for absolutely no taxes. But can you persuade me that any one earner should be giving more than, say, 10% (just as an arbitrarily low number)? Supppse you are in the range of middle to upper middle class, do you truly have no matter with being taxed approximately 25-35%?--AND THAT IS ONLY INCOME TAXES!!!! You will then lose roughly 25% more of that already taxed income to purchase and/or possess things. Then when you die, your family will be owing about 50% of what you had left. If I make $100,000 why would the government need $25,000 of paycheck? Sincerely, does that not sound completely unbelievable? And they're still screaming for more. That is horrifying, because it is not just unstainable, but it's detrimental.

Taxes are the ultimate example of treating the symptoms instead of curing the cause. Mass generations of unskilled, uneducated, low-functioning cretins, unable to produce, unable to even obtain food and housing (the two most basic tenets of sustenance) are the reason we pay such obscene taxes. I'm not making the trite old rhetoric of "those lazy bums need to get off the porch and go to work", I'm saying that we have become a nation incapable of equipping the masses, and unable to employ the low functioning. It's the pink elephant in the corner, and the only thing we do is steadily shovel it another scoop of tax peanuts.

I agree with almost everything you said. We are an entitlement society and we over tax the middle and upper income people to pay for it.

Simple man, I'll ask again, are you in favor of increasing personal property tax on other items that you own (in addition to land)?

I apologize cullbuck, I overlooked your original post earlier.
I am not for increasing the total tax burden on we the people.
Something to consider though, It is a fact that Alabama has one of the least property tax burdens in the USA. We are consistently in the top five and if you were to look at current use (forestry and Ag land) we rank even higher. Vast tracts of our land in this great State is taxed at extremely low milage rates. I made my original statement based on that fact and that the State could ease the burden on most of its citizens and transfe that burden to current use property taxes. Upon further reflection, I realize now that it was silly of me to think that the State would lower any taxes if others were raised. Below is an old article I found that speaks to the States property tax issue better than I can here.

http://www.al.com/specialreport/birminghamnews/index.ssf?blackbelt/blackbelt14.html
Note: this article was written for a different purpose than I am using for and I don't necessarily agree with all of the conclusions drawn in it. I am just using it to reference how our state land tax system works and the lower income that is generated from our Ag and timber land as opposed to most of the rest of the country. I feel it does a good job highlighting the issues there.

Simpleman, you either get up too early or stay up to late. Me...I just never sleep.

The article you posted brings up some good points but overlooks some of the obvious. Politics and the work force won't work. Now, every county has good hard working people. Some more than others. Macon co. and property taxes fall squarely on Bob Rileys shoulders. On property taxes, he tried to give the largest tax hike the state ad ever seen using basicly the same scare tactics Bentley is using. When it failed, he slid in the appraisal system we have now for property that essential goes up every year. On Macon co., he shut down the dog track that employed a lot of people. When GE Engines came in wanting to build a manufacturing plant near either U of A or AU, he had a prime opportunity to replace those jobs. GE chose AU which is mighty close to Macon co. Instead, he pushed Lee co. In Lowndes co., where GE built a plastics plant, it was difficult to find workers who wanted a job. The ones that did, got good paying jobs and moved out to neighboring counties and commute back to Lowndes for work. I don't have the answers but more taxes is not it.