Trouble ahead

THE ISSUE

A federal lawsuit that challenges Alabama's tax structure as racist and unfair to poor schools and rural students could force the state to do what it should have done decades ago: Build a fair and equitable tax system. The question is, will state officials rise to the challenge or do as usual and act only under pressure from a federal court?

Alabama's elected officials should have seen this one coming. A federal lawsuit challenging funding of K-12 schools as inadequate and racist focuses on the state's archiac tax system.

The suit, filed on behalf of some students in Lawrence and Sumter counties, contends property taxes alone are not sufficient to adequately fund K-12 schools, which disproportionately affects black students.

Jim Blacksher, an attoenry representing the plaintiffs, said the suit could force lawmakers to address the entire state tax system, not just property taxes. Blacksher is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, which would make it a comprehensive action against the state.

The lawsuit is a spin-off of an earlier suit that successfully challenged Alabama's funding for historically black colleges. A federal court sided with the plaintiffs in that case and ordered the state to make sweeping changes in higher education funding, among other things. In that suit, Blacksher identified the tax structure as one of the vestiges of the state's racist past. The judge agreed with Blacksher, but said the tax system should be addressed in a separate suit. That lawsuit has arrived in the federal court, and it's sure to cause a collective case of heartburn on Goat Hill.

Blacksher, in an interview with a Birmingham News reporter last week, said local school systems are constitutionally restrained from raising enough money through property taxes to adequately fund their operations. Because of those restrictions, he said local schools are forced to rely on sales taxes, which punish the poor, to raise money for schools.

The lawsuit highlights the inner workings - and restrictions - built into the tax code. It points out that the 1901 constitution sets limits on local and state property taxes, which cannot be changed without a vote of the people. The suit also hones in on the 1973 "Lid Bill," which limits property tax collections in a year to a percentage of the property's fair market value. Blacksher contends these limitations and restrictions were designed to protect wealthy residents at the expense of the poor, especially poor black and rural residents.

Robert Hunter, who represented the state in the earlier college case, disingeniously told the Birmingham News that he was disappointed the tax and funding issues raised in the latest suit are not being left to the Legislature and voters to resolve. Well, legislators and several gubernatorial administrations have had ample opportunity to tackle the problems, but the lack of political intestinal fortitude has forced the matter into the courts. The state Senate, in particular, has wasted taxpayers' time the past few years squabbling over arcane procedural rules and generally embarrassing themselves with petty partisan politics to accomplish anything of note.

If Alabama's leadership doesn't see the writing on the wall represented by this latest federal lawsuit, and doesn't get busy righting the inequities of the past, then it will be left to a federal judge to the job for them - again.