Food for thought . . .plus nine percent sales tax

How do you feel about food?

I love food.  I believe beets may be the last food that I have a distaste for and I am working on it.  Acquiring that taste is taking a bit longer than others, but it will happen.  I like the taste of food. I like the smell of food. I love preparing food while I watch the news.  I like thinking about which food I'm going to eat next, a thought that helps me through my days.   I like getting to know someone while preparing food. . It is food that sometimes makes certain conversations easier to digest. Relationships grow over shared food.  Super bowls are better with food.  Food makes me jump higher and run faster.  Food is interesting.

And it is necessary to sustain life.

How do you feel about taxes?

I don't like taxes.  I know they are a necessary evil, but I don't like them.  I don't like it when I do my tax return as a small business owner and discover that, short of winning a lottery, I am going to have trouble coming up with the money.  Taxes cause stress.  Taxes are not good for relationships.  Taxes are complex.  Taxes are not interesting. Taxes are taxing.

Food is necessary for life.

Taxes are a necessary evil.

The state of Alabama collects sales tax on food.

Alabama takes money that you should be paying for groceries for your family to fund the state government.

Surely this is something that every Alabamian is against.

Maybe not.  If we were all against it, surely our food would not be taxed.

It's just not right.  We should stand up and make noise about it.  It's kind of like the original Boston Tea Party.

But that name has been used, and a little misleading in our present situation, geographically speaking.

We could call it the "Alabama Food Fight."  Or "Food Fighters" and we could get the Foo Fighters to do us a theme song.

I like these ideas, but I'm not married to them.  Let me know if you can do better. Popcorn people, popcorn. Pop out those ideas.  Or actual popcorn, another food I love, but is taxed.

If I can't reach you through your stomach, let me aim for your heart.

Lower income Alabamians, many working very hard at full-time low paying jobs, pay between six and ten percent sales tax on groceries.   Some probably have to make decisions on what they can eat, or what they can feed their family, based upon the six to ten percent loss of buying power due to the Alabama Sales tax on food.

Many also pay Alabama income tax.

Rich Alabamians also pay the sales tax on food.  But they generally pay little or no Alabama income tax.

That's just not right.  It is not good.  It cannot be morally justified.

I believe it is one good thing most Alabamians can agree upon.

Seriously.

Let's do something good.  Our legislature is in session now.  We should not wait another year.

Because Bama's better than that.

For a far better explanation of the problem, read this.

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