During a Friday appearance on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal,” Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed (R-Jasper) detailed his chamber’s efforts to spearhead a tax relief package through the legislature.
Reed emphasized that the “most significant” piece of tax relief legislation introduced is a bill sponsored by State Sen. Tom Butler (R-Huntsville) to eliminate the business privilege tax.
Reed explained that given the fiscal health of the state’s budgets, an opportunity sits before the legislature to provide relief to taxpayers and support small businesses.
“Alabama’s economy is strong, our receipts have been increased in both the general fund and the education budget. So there is an opportunity for us to give a tax break to the people of the state of Alabama, give resource back to the people,” advised Reed. “This total package is going to have five bills and it’s going to be from retirees, to working families, to businesses that are going to be impacted and affected. The package is going to be as big based on all the elements that we have $130 million a year in tax relief coming back to the people of Alabama.”
The Senate leader added, “The most significant element of that this week was there was a bill introduced by Senator Butler from up in Huntsville, and that is the elimination of the business privilege tax. That’s been an issue that’s been a hard one for businesses to feel good about. And we’ve heard over and over again that, ‘Why are we paying this privilege tax to be a business owner in the state of Alabama?”
Reed outlined the loss of revenue that would be in store for the state if the tax was eliminated and said senators were actively researching avenues to pass the bill.
“It has a pretty good price tag to it as far as a loss of revenue to the state’s budgets,” said Reed, adding that the net loss would be in the ballpark of $25-27 million. “And in doing that, we felt like this is a thing we want to support our businesses. We want to support small businesses in particular. So if there’s a way to eliminate this privilege tax, then let’s work on it.”
Reed concluded, “So the legislature, the Senate in particular, dove into the thing. We had the budget chairs involved trying to figure out, hey, how can we eliminate this and come up with ways to fill the gap if we’re going to do that? So it’s been a strong effort. But that bill was introduced, it’ll have to go through the process, something real important in that package of tax relief for the people of Alabama, in particular for businesses.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
