If you think Alabama’s Republican leaders are still the party of low taxes and rugged liberty, I’ve got a bridge to sell you – probably funded by Gov. Kay Ivey’s gas tax!
Two policies tell the tale: the dying overtime tax exemption and that ever-climbing fuel levy. Those on Goat Hill are acting like a bunch of blue-state bureaucrats, and it’s high time we call these so-called conservatives what they are: RINOs with better accents.
Let’s start with the overtime tax break, born in 2023, on life support by 2025.
The idea was simple: let workers keep their overtime pay without the state stepping in and playing the part of Robber Barons. It kicked off last year, and by September 2024, it’d saved Alabamians $230 million, according to the Revenue Department. That’s real money and real economic liberty for the common Alabamian: cash for groceries, truck payments, or a night out instead of padding some corpulent bureaucrat’s slush fund.
It doesn’t take a Harvard-trained economist to tell you this. Such tax breaks free up expendable monies that will be put back into the system and juice the economy. The formula is quite simple: more hours worked = more cash spent locally.
But it seems that many Alabamians have not seen the football since kickoff. That said, you wait and watch the GOP fumble it.
The overtime tax exemption sunsets in June 2025 and the Republican House just passed a $192 million tax cut package that leaves it for dead. Why? House budget boss Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville) is crying over the $300 million annual cost, like Alabama’s some kind of pauper state instead of one sitting on a $1.5 billion surplus. What’s worse is that even with that kind of surplus capital, our infrastructure is woefully inept and derelict compared to competitive states. Meanwhile, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) is playing the “we can’t afford it” card while he and his colleagues dream up new ways to blow cash on pet projects.
Real Republicans don’t tax workers to death – they cut the fat elsewhere. This is not fiscal restraint; this is highway banditry. It’s almost as if the “Rino Elites” took a play out of Marx’s Manifesto and have the bourgeois stepping on the backs of the proletariats. Simply put, it’s a choice to screw the folks who keep Alabama running.
Then there’s Ivey’s gas tax – a slow-motion mugging dressed up as progress. In 2019, Meemaw muscled through a 10-cent-per-gallon hike, with a sneaky escalator clause jacking it up every two years; it can never go down by design, only up. By now, you’re paying extra for every fill-up, and it’s not stopping – the next hike is around the corner. Ivey calls it “roads and bridges,” but rural folks hauling kids to school or crops to the market call it a kick in the teeth and a bump on their behinds.
Republicans are supposed to ease burdens, not pile on regressive taxes that hit the poorest hardest. This ain’t Reagan’s party – it’s closer to AOC’s playbook, minus the sanctimonious tweets.
I’m not here to coddle anyone or talk about common ground anymore; instead, I am going to double-tap this insurgency. Alabama’s GOP is governing like a pack of elitists who forgot who is in charge. The overtime fiasco proves it – Democrats like House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) are fighting harder to save it than the Republicans who are the party of tax cuts. When the minority party’s outflanking you on pro-worker cred, you’ve lost the script. And the gas tax? It’s a middle finger to every Alabamian who can’t afford a Tesla or a Montgomery penthouse. Ivey’s too busy dodging veterans’ calls and sniping at her own party to notice the resentment brewing.
This isn’t about political principles – it’s about personal priorities. The GOP could keep the overtime break and axe the gas hikes if they’d quit posturing and start cutting. That surplus could fund both and then some, but they’d rather hoard it for photo-op projects than give it back to you.
I’ve said before that perception is everything, and right now, Alabama’s Republicans look like they’re more comfortable sipping cocktails with lobbyists than standing up for the hard-working folks who voted them in.
Time’s up for this band of rouges and highwaymen! If the current Alabama GOP won’t kill these taxes and fight for the good Alabama citizens, they don’t merit or deserve the label – nor the loyalty at the polls.
Ivey and her corrupt crew better wake up before the pitchforks come out. Alabama deserves leaders who act like Republicans, not just talk like ‘em on the campaign trail. Anything less, and they’re just progressive liberals parading as principled pachyderms, laughing all the way to the bank.
This article has been updated to reflect the fact that Rep. Anthony Daniels is a Democrat rather than a Republican.
Troy Carico is both a former infantry enlisted soldier (11B) and infantry officer with branch qualifications including counterintelligence (35E) and military intelligence (35D). He served with distinction in the U.S. Army for more than 22 years, and is highly decorated and service connected disabled. He also has prior service as a civilian intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency Great Skills Program and has served in numerous clandestine assignments throughout the world.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
