On Saturday, August 8, Governor Riley called a special session of the Alabama Legislature to deal with the Jefferson County occupational tax.  Since the last post on this blog, the proposed bill has been materially changed and more changes that hurt the taxpayers have been proposed. 

Unlike the bill initially advertised and discussed in the media, the bill as it will be presented in the special session includes language that attempts to validate the actions of the Jefferson County Commission in collecting the old occupational tax from November of 1999 forward.  This is a blatant attempt to kill the lawsuit and judgment entered in favor of the taxpayers in January by Judge David Rains.  This language serves only to justify the illegal actions taken by the County Commission, who knew there was a risk that the old occupational tax would be taken away as early as 2005.  This is being done despite the fact that the County’s lead attorney in the lawsuit, Bill Slaughter, has said to the Alabama Supreme Court that the legislature CANNOT effect the rights of the taxpayers. 

In a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court seeking access to the money being collected and held in escrow under the old tax, Mr. Slaughter stated: 

[C]onsider the hypothetical situation if the Legislature had responded on the last day of the session and passed a replacement tax.  Such legislation would presumably have obviated both the right and the need of the County to collect the Act 67-406 Taxes thereafter, but such legislative action could not have affected the legal status of the taxes levied since January 12, 2009, that would still be pending on appeal.  The rights of the Plaintiffs with respect to those taxes would be vested and protected from legislative intervention by Section 95 of the Alabama Constitution. 

It begs the question, when the County’s lead attorney acknowledges that the Legislature cannot take away the right of the taxpayers in the lawsuit, why does the Legislature keep trying to enact language that clearly violates the Alabama Constitution?  All this provision does is guarantee that there will be legal challenges to the bill that will potentially kill the work that will be done in the special session.  Maybe killing the tax is the goal of the Legislature after all… 

Another provision being proposed by Senator Roger Smitherman seeks to prevent a vote by the citizens of Jefferson County to phase out the occupational tax after 2012.  Instead, Senator Smitherman seeks to have any vote to end the tax merely cause it to be reduced over time but never go away.  Clearly Senator Smitherman puts more trust in the County Commission than in the voters of Jefferson County. 

Senator Zeb Little of Cullman County has announced that he will hold a meeting in Cullman to discuss the effects of a new occupational tax on his constituents – many of whom work in Jefferson County.  We applaud the actions of Senator Little and hope that more representatives in the surrounding counties will weigh in on this bill on behalf of their constituents who work in Jefferson County and who will pay any new tax that is passed, but who do not have a vote in Jefferson County. 

We encourage all people who live or work in Jefferson County to contact your State legislators and let them know your thoughts as the special session gets underway.  Hopefully, if a new tax is to be enacted, it is one that will be fair, legal, and with the support of the taxpayers who will bear its burden.