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(01-10-2018 07:28 AM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  Probably a big reason why property tax in Alabama is so incredibly low and also why the government is constantly underfunded and the infrastructure sucks, although Atlanta area voters have passed almost every sales tax increase they've asked for over the past 5 or so years, so it also helps to have a willing public that wants things to improve

The single biggest reason that we are saddled with a very low property tax rate is the 1902 state constitution, which was designed to do two things: Institutionalize Jim Crow and keep property taxes low, particularly for large landowners. As a result, instead of running the state on a steady predictable cash flow from property taxes, it is funded off of sales tax, which ebbs and flows with the economy. This is compounded by much of the state budget being earmarked for particular purposes, or in the case of education funds, the money not being available to the lege to raid for other purposes.

It's a screwed up system - and the only way to fix it is to re-write the constitution. The mind boggles at what might happen when the lege and the people who give them money sit down to plan that out.