Alabama professor injects Jesus into state tax debate
Could a Bible Belt state where
so many people claim to follow Christianity really be taxing personal incomes as low as $4,600 annually for a family
of four -- the lowest threshold of any state -- while letting wealthy timber owners pay less than $1 per acre in
property taxes? That sounds bad but the same poor family gets an Earned Income Tax Credit of $2,000 cash. Also,
many of the same poor families own the timber land that brings $1 per acre in property taxes. Studies
show Alabama ranks third in the nation in taxation fairness. Alabamians have the third highest income after taxes
- third only to Alaska and Oklahoma. But not soon, if Alabama lawyers have their way. Susan Pace Hamill, a former Internal Revenue Service attorney set out on a crusade to force the state to change, arguing its tax structure is immoral and Christians
have a moral duty to do something about it. At
the heart of Hamill's argument is the idea that the government and the rich are profiting from the poor, something
the Bible prohibits. Hamill,
once a New York lawyer and Internal Revenue Service lawyer, now a University of Alabama law professor, wrote a
thesis for a master's degree in theology spelling out the moral duty of Christians to work for a fairer tax system
in Alabama. Old
Testament laws required fairness to the poor, and Jesus taught that people should care for "the least of these."
Hamill, who attends a United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa, argues that means believers are required to make sure
the state doesn't disproportionately burden its poorest residents. "Alabama's
tax structure fails to come close to meeting the moral demands that God has revealed for us in the Bible,"
she wrote. The
thesis was printed in condensed form in newspapers statewide last fall as an op-ed piece, and the full version
was later published in the Alabama Law Review. The
Rev. Jim Evans, a moderate Baptist who has long supported tax reform on biblical principles, called Hamill an "accidental
prophet." "We
have discussed her work at our church, but mostly informally," Evans said. "The real strength of her
work is in the analysis of the tax structure itself, especially property tax." But
such support is not universal among the state's churches. The
head of the conservative Christian Coalition of Alabama, John Giles, said Hamill goes too far in equating opposition
to tax reform with sin. "I agree with her only on one point: Anytime you can bring tax relief to the poor
it's a noble thing," Giles said. If
Hamill has her way the Alabama poor families owning timber land that brings $1 per acre in property taxes will
lose their property because of prohibitively high property taxes. Compared
to New York property tax, an Alabama family paying $1,000 dollars property taxes for a house will pay over $4,000.00
when Hamill's misguided ideas become law.
