Eye on Politics
Paul DeMarco
The Alabama Legislature is back from its last break before legislators start the final days of their 2025 session.
The Alabama House of Representatives has passed several pieces of legislation that will benefit taxpayers. One of the first bills would reduce the grocery tax by one cent. Currently shoppers pay three cents to the state for food.
The new law would also allow local governments to cut their taxes on groceries, as well.
This is a smart move for lawmakers as the majority of states do not impose this tax and has been a long time coming. The hope is in the next few years Alabama will completely remove the tax.
Alabama has some of the lowest property taxes in the nation and thus has higher sales and income taxes than other states. The move to reduce the grocery tax is a significant move by state leaders.
In addition, this has been a decades long effort that is finally possible because of a strong economy in Alabama.
And this appears to be the first of many moves to lower more taxes in Alabama in the future. Hopefully they will also pass legislation that recently won approval in the Alabama House of Representatives that will make adjustments and lower income taxes for some Alabama citizens.
Other states are also targeting income taxes. Just recently, the Mississippi Legislature passed a bill to eliminate its income tax. The plan would make quarter-point reductions from 2027 to 2030, with the goal of completely phasing out the tax by 2040.
The state of Arkansas has made significant progress in reducing its income tax, while neighboring Tennessee and Florida do not have such an income tax period.
There is already talk that Alabama lawmakers will look for further income tax reform in the future, but for now in the remaining days of the session they should pass what is on the table to provide relief for Alabama taxpayers.
Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives and can be found on X, formerly Twitter, at @Paul_DeMarco.
