by Alanna Hartzok, Scotland, PA
A University of Alabama School of Law Professor has
asked God's forgiveness for the years she lived in the sin
of ignorance about tax injustice. Susan Pace Hamill, a tax
expert, business consultant, and dedicated United Methodist
church goer, thought there was a misprint when she first
read that personal incomes as low as $4,600 for a family of
four were being taxed by the state, while timber owners
holding 71% of the land of Alabama were paying less than $1
per acre in property taxes. Two hours later she found out
there had been no mistake and that Alabama has the most
regressive tax code in the country. Her righteous rage
spawned a tax crusade that has reverberated onto the
national scene.
"As somebody who knows a lot about taxes, I could
not have imagined a design of a tax structure this bad,"
she said in a Tuscaloosa News story last February. "The
state's tax code is really horribly unjust and has no
moral, ethical leg to stand on. Period."
Alabamians with incomes under $13,000 pay 10.9
percent of their incomes in state and local taxes while
those who make over $229,000 pay just 4.1 percent.
Commercial property owners pay more than 50 percent of
property taxes, with homes approaching one-third.
Alabama's sales taxes are among the highest in the nation,
up to 10 percent in some areas, and do not exempt even the
most basic necessities such as food. The state's 1901
constitution was written primarily by large landholders to
secure their economic interests, consequently property
taxes are extremely light on their holdings.
At the time of her shocked awakening to tax
injustice Alabama style, Hamill was working towards a
master's degree in divinity from Beeson Divinity School at
Samford University in Birmingham. She got the idea to
write her thesis paper to expose the gap between Christian
principles and the Alabama tax code. With the assistance
of law school staff, she spent a year researching and
writing "An Argument for Tax Reform Based on
Judeo-Christian Ethics."
The thesis grew into a mission that galvanized the
latent movement for tax reform in Alabama and Hamill
rapidly became a leading spokesperson for tax justice.
News stories around the state debated her insights and
conclusions and the movement came to the attention of the
nation's leading newspapers.
The Washington Post (3/23/03) headlined a story
"Law Professor Summons Jesus as a Witness for Tax Reform"
and a New York Times editorial (6/10/03) queried "What
Would Jesus Do?" and answered "Sock It to Alabama's
Corporate Landowners.")
"Alabama's tax system is most abusive because it
taxes items like milk, yet offers tax breaks for certain
farm products," she said in a Huntsville Times (3/26/03)
interview. "It's also unfair to allow timberland (which
Hamill found out accounts for 71 percent of Alabama land)
to generate only two percent of all state property taxes."
While resoundingly condemning the current system
(she uses words like "horrific" and "monstrous injustice")
Hamill clearly articulates a tax reform approach which
shifts taxes off of low wage earners and onto large land
owners. Through a combination of her own reasoning, caring
heart, and inherent sense of justice and a thorough
investigation of Judeo-Christian ethics, Hamill arrived at
a tax policy approach which bears remarkable similarities
to the economic justice crusades of 19th century reformer,
Henry George.
Her appeal is to the 93 percent of Alabama
residents who call themselves Christians. Hamill
challenges them to put their faith into practice. Her
message fell on many already listening ears. The state's
two largest denominations, United Methodists and Southern
Baptists, had passed resolutions favoring tax reform in
2000. In 2001 the state's Episcopalians, Presbyterians and
Catholics approved similar calls. The Public Affairs
Research Council of Alabama and the Business Council of
Alabama had long clamored for tax change. In fact, tax
reform is now supported by most of the state's religious
organizations, according to Charles Durham, pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa.
What makes Hamill's work so compelling is her deep
grasp of the Alabama tax code combined with her thorough
documentation of the scriptural bases for economic justice.
She quotes chapters and verses which proclaim that the poor
should not be oppressed and that society should create
conditions for their advance. Among her favorites 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." Luke
16:19-31 is a parable of a rich man sent to hell because of
his indifference to the disadvantaged and in Jeremiah
22:15-16, "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and
so all went well."
While Hamill suspected she would be opposed by
special interest groups like the Alabama Farmers Federation
which represents big timber and agribusiness interests, she
was not prepared for the attacks and underhanded tactics of
the Alabama Christian Coalition under the leadership of
President John Giles. While Giles agrees that tax relief
to the less fortunate "is a noble thing" he says the care
of the poor is the duty of private charity not of
government and staunchly opposes tax increases. He tried
to damage the Hamill campaign by smearing her personal
integrity, pointing to her signing of a pro-choice petition
as evidence that she therefore could not be a moral
authority on tax reform. Opposing forces also called her a "Yankee carpetbagger" detailing
her work history at two New York law firms. They said
(wrongly so) that her tax proposals would bring huge
property increases on the average home and business.
Bob Blalock, editorial page editor for The
Birmingham News, says that the "real question about
legitimacy should be aimed at the Christian Coalition. For
whom does it speak when it attacks Hamill? Christians,
many of whom would benefit from a fairer tax system, even
one that raised more money? Or powerful special-interest
groups (timber? agribusiness?) that want to protect their
obscene tax breaks?" Blalock says there is no way to know
because the law does not require the Christian Coalition to
disclose what individuals or groups fund it. "When an
organization places itself in the center of the debate over
tax reform, citizens deserve to know who's funding its
point of view." (3/14/03)
Hamill's conservative theology school responded to
the attacks by firmly backing her stance. Faculty at
Beeson Divinity School of Samford University in Birmingham
passed a unanimous resolution endorsing her efforts. "We
think what she has proposed is worthy support from the
Christian community and we think it is in keeping with the
evangelical community," said the school's dean, Timothy
George (Anniston Star, 3/11/03).
Frank Thielman, Presbyterian Professor of Divinity
at Beeson had this to say about their resolution:
"Personally, I hope it does encourage dramatic tax reform
that helps to relieve the burden of the poor. The reason
I'm hopeful is because of my commitment as a Christian and
my Christian vision. That is a vision that the poor should
be dealt with equitably and fairly and that is a very
biblical vision. It's because of my Christian commitment
and the Bible and the word of God that I hope tax reform
efforts succeed." (Anniston Star, 3/11/03)
In her own defense Hamill stated, "They (Christian
Coalition) don't have anything to say that even touches the
integrity and solidarity of my work, so they're attacking
the person and doing it with lies." (The Tuscaloosa news,
3/13/03). She is considering legal action for character
defamation.
Baptist-run Samford also printed and distributed
thousands of copies summarizing Hamill's essay in a
three-page brochure the size of a church bulletin.
More good news about Hamill's tax reform campaign
is the potential for building a wedge between the religious
right and the nation's neoliberal economic agenda. New
York Times editorial observer Adam Cohen had this to say
about Alabama's recently elected Republican Governor Bob
Riley: "If the religious right had called up Central
Casting last year to fill the part of governor, they could
hardly have done better than the teetotaling, Bible-quoting
businessman from rural central Alabama who now heads up the
state.... Governor Riley has stunned many of his
conservative supporters, and enraged the state's powerful
farm and timber lobbies, by pushing a tax reform plan
through the Alabama Legislature that shifts a significant
amount of the state's tax burden from the poor to wealthy
individuals and corporations. And he has framed the issue
in starkly moral terms, arguing that the current Alabama
tax system violates biblical teachings because Christians
are prohibited from oppressing the poor." (6/10/03)
Riley's tax plan, inspired in large measure by
Hamill's prophetic tax justice ministry, would bring in an
additional $1.2 billion in revenue while raising the income
threshold at which families of four start paying taxes from
the current $4,600 a year to more than $17,000, scrapping
the federal income tax deduction, and increasing exemptions
for dependent children. It would give property tax breaks
to small family farms, while costing millions to the
state's 500 or so farms and timber tracts with more than
2,000 acres each, which includes companies like
Weyerhaeuser and Boise Cascade, which own hundreds of
thousands of acres.
"I've spent a lot of time studying the New
Testament and it has three philosophies: love God, love
each other, and take care of the least among you," said
Riley (New York Times, 6/10/03, "What Would Jesus Do? Sock
It to Alabama's Corporate Landowners")
Unfortunately, Alabama voters overwhelmingly voted
against the plan on September 9, 2003. Some said that the
poor did not trust the Republican tax relief plan and the
rich had solidly organized against it. Opponents made hay
out of the proposed sales tax increase on cigarettes, cars
and lawn mowers and services like car repairs in a state
where sales taxes already reach 11% in some areas.
The political divide for and against the tax
proposal made for strange bedfellows. Labor Commissioner
Charles Bishop was one of the two Cabinet members who
resigned after Riley made his tax proposal, saying Alabama
voters thought they were getting a tax-cutting conservative
who would eliminate waste, but instead got the opposite.
Riley was supported by the state teachers' union,
black lawmakers and the Democratic Party, as well as big
business groups like the Campaign for Alabama. His
opponents included a coalition of players who had until
recently been his strongest supporters - bankers, farmers,
small business owners, timber interests and conservative
groups like the Alabama Christian Coalition and Americans
for Tax Reform.
It appears that Governor Riley's fears about what
would happen if the state's voters rejected his plan are
coming true. Given the enormous $675 million government
deficit, he had to call a session of the legislature to
slash the budget.
Adam Cohen, reporting again for the New York Times
(10/20/03) said "the budget ax is swinging in Alabama and
the carnage is piling up." After the vote, Governor Riley
was forced to cut most state agencies by 18 percent, and
other recipients of state funds by 75 percent. Here is a
list of expected results:
- A hundred and fifty fewer low-income AIDS patients will
receive life-saving medicines from the state.
- Fifteen thousand low-income Alabamians may lose their
hypertension drugs.
- High Hopes, a program that offers after-school tutoring
to students who fail the high school graduation exam, is
being slashed.
- Up to 1,500 poor children and adults with Down syndrome,
autism and other disabilities will not be able to attend a
state-supported special-needs camp.
- The court system is laying off 500 of 1,600 workers, from
clerk's office employees to probation officers.
- The health department is losing investigators who track
tuberculosis, and sharply reducing restaurant inspections.
Cohen reports that the impact of the NO vote for
tax reform is being blunted by a fortuitous one-time
injection of federal funds. "Next year agencies are
bracing for a 56 percent hit. If the state cannot find
more revenue - and Governor Riley is searching - it may be
nearly impossible for basic services, including courts,
prisons and police, to operate," he said. "Last month,
Alabama voted for fewer social services, less education,
and a shoddier legal system - to become, that is, more like
a third-world nation... Governor Riley's setback last month
is being hailed by national antitax forces as a great
victory. But if Alabama heads into next year without
additional revenues, students may have to learn without
textbooks, prisoners may be released early, and people may
start dying of preventable diseases. We should all pay
attention, because if the "starve the beast" (of government
finance) crowd continues to prevail in Washington, as goes
Alabama so may go the nation."
Despite losing this battle, hopefully the moral and
ethical forces for tax justice that were awakened by Hamill
and her momentous campaign will continue to move forward,
refining and developing their strategy. Hamill is an
articulate and impassioned tax reform crusader who is
standing on solid moral and ethical ground. Her voice and
the voices of those responding to her message will continue
to sound.
The Alabama tax shift movement has not yet been
fully exposed to the political, economic and spiritual
insights of Henry George, nor have the ethical dimensions
and scriptural imperatives concerning ownership of land in
the Judeo-Christian tradition emerged as keynotes. In the
opinion of this writer, the time is approaching when the
full message of securing human rights to the earth via
fundamental tax reform will be heard by the nation. By
that time Alabama's Susan Pace Hamill will have played a
magnificent leading role in the story.
Hamill's thesis and other related materials are
posted on the web at
www.law.ua.edu/directory/bio/shamill.htm.
(Author's note: Thank you to Wynn Achenbaum for
her many email forwards of news stories following the
Alabama tax crusade and appreciation as well to Bob
McDonald who sent a packet of material including Hamill's
book, which includes her 112 page masters of divinity
thesis, "An Argument for Tax Reform Based on
Judeo-Christian Ethics" which was also published in the
Alabama Law Review. Although Wynn and Bob have been
following the Alabama movement closely and made some
contact with Hamill, a strong connection between Hamill and
the Georgist movement has not yet been forged. Such
contact may lie in the near future.)
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Alanna Hartzok may be emailed at earthrts@pa.net