Residents in Alabama now have easier access to state tax and budget information, including how public dollars are raised and where money is spent, thanks to an updated, user-friendly handbook from Arise Citizens’ Policy Project (ACPP), a nonpartisan organization that works on ending poverty. 
The 55-page document, “The Alabama Tax & Budget Handbook,” is free online and in print. ACPP, which released the updated handbook in May, opens the document with a basic premise about the “common good” and how government has a responsibility to help residents.
“All of us – regardless of age, health, wealth, background or location – depend on a network of services from our local, state and national governments,” the handbook says.
“…Each state is responsible for ensuring the safety, general well-being and education of its people. And each state government carries out this responsibility in its own way.”
The handbook provides answers and insight about the government budget, in general, and an introduction to taxes in Alabama. In terms of the type of taxation that people in Alabama pay, the handbooks notes that dollars that support government services can come from income, sales, property and businesses.
While the state of Alabama receives nearly 50 percent of its dollars from taxes and fees from people and businesses, it also gets 40 percent of its yearly budget from the federal government, according to ACPP. These federal dollars help support health care, transportation and education.
The percentage is also higher than what the federal government gives, on average, to other states. Other states usually receive 25 percent of their budgets from the U.S. government.
The handbook authors, who included a glossary, say that Alabama state lawmakers, unlike their counterparts elsewhere, are limited in how public dollars are spent because of restrictions placed on them by voters. ACPP says this can have a downside: “This earmarking can prevent our legislators from creating a budget that adequately meets our needs for education, public safety and other services.”
Handbook readers also learn that elected leaders in the state approve all public spending through two bills. One, the Education Trust Fund Budget Act, supports education. The other, the General Fund Budget Act, allocates money to other state priorities.
At the end of the handbook, ACPP suggests solutions that it believes can help low-income residents and all the families in the state. For example, ACPP believes there is a need for the state to raise more dollars to better support what families and people need, including access to good education, health care and other services.
The organization says low- and middle-income workers in Alabama are paying for most of the taxes, though what these two groups earn barely keeps pace with inflation. If high-income workers, who earn 57 percent of the income in the state, pay the same in taxes, “Alabama could afford to strengthen the services that make our state a better place to live,” ACPP says.
Arise Citizens’ Policy Project, based in Montgomery, Ala., is a coalition of 150 organizations and congregations working on public policies to help low-income residents.