NewsFlash Home | More Alabama News

Alabama News

Baxley staying out of Riley's tax referendum

By PHILLIP RAWLS
The Associated Press
6/19/03 3:50 PM

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Alabama's top-ranking Democrat, Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, won't take part in Republican Gov. Bob Riley's campaign to get voters to approve the largest tax increase in state history, designed partly to bolster public schools and provide college scholarships.

"It was not my agenda and I was not part of drawing up the plan," Baxley said Thursday.

Baxley presided over the Senate during the special session that ended May 7 with the Legislature approving Riley's $1.2 billion tax-and-accountability package. The taxes, as well as the new education programs they would fund, are contingent upon a majority of Alabama voters approving the package in a referendum Sept. 9.

Baxley said she is still studying the details of the package. She knows the income and property tax provisions will cause her taxes to rise, but she is not yet sure how much. Once she knows all the details, she said she will make up her mind about how to vote Sept. 9.

"Unless the details convince me I should not, I will be voting for the plan," she said in an interview.

Baxley said the best feature in Riley's package is increasing the threshold for paying the state income tax. Currently, a family of four begins paying income taxes after making $4,600. Riley's plan raises that to $17,000 the first year and then phases in increases to $20,000.

"I have been a single working mother struggling to make ends meet. I believe in the help it gives to the people on the low end of the economic ladder," Baxley said.

Plus, she said, it goes along with her religious faith.

"That is something from a Christian point of view that I believe is an act of compassion to needy people," she said.

Riley's plan would solve a $675 million budget deficit for the next fiscal year and raise money for new education programs, including college scholarships and a statewide program to help elementary students read at grade level.

Baxley said her two children are grown, but she likes the education programs in Riley's plan. "If I care about a better Alabama, that's part of my responsibility," she said.

She said she did question why Riley is raising more money than the state's $675 million budget deficit during slow economic times. While she supports the new education programs he proposed, she said it might have been easier to get voters to raise taxes for new programs by waiting until the economic cycle turns up.

Riley got that question from a lot of people. At the end of the Legislature's special session, Riley said raising $675 million to fill the budget deficit would still have been the largest increase in state history, but he would have been asking voters to approve a historic tax increase simply to maintain the status quo in state government.

"That's a hard sale," he said.

MORE ALABAMA NEWS
	» Riley recruiting help from local leaders on tax package 2:51 p.m. CT » Baxley staying out of Riley's tax referendum 2:48 p.m. CT » Bare-bottomed Vulcan again looms over Birmingham 2:42 p.m. CT
» More Stories