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University of Alabama Law Professor Susan Pace Hamill,
a former Internal Revenue Service and New York lawyer, quotes biblical scriptures in the Book of Matthew to justify
her statements that Alabama's Tax Code hurts children and the poor. When the welfare of children is at stake, politicians
and governments can push just about any agenda.
From 1986 to 1990, Lawyer Hamill practiced law with the New York law firms of Sullivan & Cromwell and Chadbourne
& Parke. From 1990 to 1994, Hamill served as an attorney adviser for the Chief Counsel's Office of the Internal
Revenue Service. How many Alabama citizens trust the Internal Revenue Service? Does Hamill's Internal Revenue Service
and New York law firm connections discredit her efforts to advise Alabamians on tax reform?
Hamill's effort to revise Alabama's tax code through constitutional revision is reminiscent of post-civil war reconstruction
days when Yankee carpetbaggers came south in search of easy pickings. "Carpetbagger" is a term used by
southerners to describe the rabble who converged on the south in desperate times to cheat southerners out of their
land.
It appears Lawyer Hamill may be using her position at the University of Alabama Law School for personal gain. As
a Law Professor at UA School of Law, Hamill stands to gain personally by any tax increase. Constitutional reformers
say Alabama needs a tax increase to fund education. Tax increases to fund schools usually mean a salary increase
for educators.
In an article by, Anna Thibodeaux, The Birmingham Weekly, April 3, 2003, pg. 6, Thibodeaux writes, "Within
the confines of her office at the University of Alabama's law school, Hamill announces she's issuing 'a full scale
call for help . . .' " Seems Hamill has been criticized from several different sources for her stance on tax
reform.
Hamill attacks large land owners for tax reform but when the truth surfaces, the average home and business owner
will see huge property tax increases if Hamill has her way. Lawyer Hamill cites numerous non-existent studies showing
how Alabama's state and local tax structure unfairly burdens the poor. Hamill's news articles never tell her readers
who authored the studies.
Hamill quotes biblical scriptures in the Book of Matthew to justify her position. Hamill forgets Scripture also
warns lawyers who deliberately mislead the poor. Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge:
ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. Luke 11:52 Luke's warning includes a
lawyer deliberately misleading citizens about tax reform.
More credible studies by the Tax Foundation show Alabama ranks Third in Best States for
Taxes and Fourth in Best States for Small Biz.
Tax reform a moral issue, professor tells churches
03/02/03
GREG GARRISON
News staff writer
Susan Pace Hamill reached for a marker and made a series of circles, small to large, on a blackboard: a small circle
with a big bite, leading to a big circle with a small bite.
"The bite represents the tax burden," said Hamill, a University of Alabama law professor, speaking on
a Wednesday night to 30 people at her church, Trinity United Methodist in Tuscaloosa. "The smaller the pie,
the bigger the bite. It's wrong."
Since publication of her 112-page article in the fall 2002 Alabama Law Review attacking the state's tax system
on theological grounds, Hamill has spoken to about a dozen churches and many civic groups, making the case that
Christian morality cries out for tax reform.
Samford University has backed Hamill's tax reform case by printing 15,000 copies of a brochure summarizing her
argument and helping to distribute them to churches.
"It's so profound for churches and religious people," Samford President Thomas E. Corts said. "Obviously,
nobody wants to pay more taxes, but Americans are instinctively fair and just and they can be appealed to on a
moral basis."
Since the first printing last month, nearly 10,000 copies of the brochure have been distributed. "We're sending
this out to all denominations," said Sean Flynt, of Samford's information department. "Just by word of
mouth, it's getting out there."
He gets requests from about two religious groups a week requesting copies in the hundreds. "It can be inserted
in a church bulletin or left on a table," he said. "It is an explicitly, overtly religious argument."
Hamill hasn't been the first to make a moral and religious argument for tax reform. In 2000, the state's two largest
denominations, United Methodists and Southern Baptists, passed resolutions favoring tax reform. In 2001, the state's
Episcopal and Presbyterian (USA) denominations approved similar calls.
But Hamill's intensely researched paper, written as her master's thesis in theological studies at Beeson Divinity
School, has gone so deep to the heart of the issue that Christians are being jolted by the need for reform.
People are generally shocked when she points out that property tax revenue on timberland yields less than 2 percent
of the state's total tax revenue, despite timberland's making up 70 percent of Alabama's geography.
"I didn't know it was 2 percent," said Myles Marques, a member of Trinity Church in Tuscaloosa. "I
thought surely to God it was more than that."
Raise timberland tax:
Hamill argues that the only way to solve the state's perpetual funding woes is to tax timberland at a higher rate.
Alabama timberland owners typically pay about a dollar per acre per year in property taxes, while Georgia landowners
pay four times that. Raising property taxes in general won't help much, she said. "Then they're paying less
than 2 percent of a little bit more than nothing," she said. "We've got to fix the proportion."
If Hamill can't persuade people of the economics, she'll quote Scripture.
"A lot of folks have asked what has religion got to do with taxes," Hamill said. "We're sitting
on the most unfair tax system you can dream up. No interpretation of the Bible can support it. All interpretations
of the Bible would condemn it."
Yet, churches have been complacent on the issue, she said.
Unlike in 1999, when Baptists and Methodists led a mobilization by churches that helped defeat a proposed lottery
in a statewide referendum, pulpits seem silent on the injustice of heavy taxes on the poor, she said.
"Yes, resolutions have been passed, but I haven't seen anything like the defeat of the lottery," Hamill
said.
"I think her theological case is strong," said the Rev. Gary Furr, pastor of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church,
where Hamill spoke on Jan. 19.
Churches need to do more than just pass statements, he said. "There's not a companion activism to go with
the resolutions," Furr said. "Resolutions do not really resolve anything."
Targeting the SBC:
Hamill will speak March 9 during the 9:30 and 11:15 a.m. services at Birmingham's Unitarian Church. She yearns
to break through with Southern Baptists, the state's dominant faith group.
"Evangelicals don't mind telling people where they are going if they keep doing wrong," Hamill said.
"If we can get the message to the core Baptists, that would be serious momentum. We have to appeal to their
theological interests. That's hard. We have a little chore ahead of us."
But Hamill insists the ball is rolling. "There is a revolt brewing."
"She's made an impact on the churches," said the Rev. Alan Head, pastor of Trinity Church in Tuscaloosa,
which Hamill attends with her husband and two children. "If we can stand together, then things will start
to move."
Among the Scripture verses that Hamill focuses on are Jesus' words in Matthew 25:45: "Whatever you did not
do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
She contrasts that admonition with Alabama's $4,600 income threshold for families to pay state income tax the lowest
in the country. "We're crushing the poor here, and we need to stop doing that."
A moral issue:
With Alabama facing budget desperation, now is the time to act on tax reform, said Jefferson County Tax Collector
Jack Williams, who agrees that tax injustice is a moral issue.
"She's saying new things and taking a fresh approach," he said. "We've got to have fundamental tax
reform in the state."
Alabama public schools are expected to lose $200 million in the next fiscal year, with the state running an estimated
$500 million deficit. Alabama's general fund has been stagnant for years, prisons are short on funding and the
state doesn't have enough matching funds for federal money on roads and social services, Williams said.
"We don't have enough troopers on the road," he said. "The state has a lot of needs. With the financial
crisis the state is facing, this is an incredible opportunity to look at where we are."
Williams said it's in the best interests of the state to change. "I don't think it's possible for us to maximize
our potential as a state when we have a system so unjust the state has its foot on the neck of the poor,"
he said.
"It's all about persuasion," Hamill said. "Tax reform for those of us with more is against our own
direct self-interest. To overcome that, you have to shame people into it."
That's where preaching the sin of tax inequity from pulpits comes in, Hamill said. "If the churches don't
get behind something, it just won't happen." On The Net:
www.law.ua.edu/directory/bio/shamill.html
Copyright 2003 al.com. All Rights Reserved.
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