Alabama's Legislative Fiscal Offices has given lawmakers a list of possible revenue sources to fund a school reform plan that must be in place within 11 months.
An additional $1.12 billion a year in state revenues could be raised through five major changes in the way Alabama taxes its citizens, according to Joyce Bigbee, director of the fiscal office.
Of the total, $345 million would come from ending the deductibility of federal income taxes from state income taxes, $265 million from lifting the maximum personal income tax level to 6% from 5%, $249 million from raising the state sales and use tax to 5% from 4%, $164.5 million through an occupational tax on 0.5% of wages, and $99 million by doubling the state property tax.
The list is only provided to indicate possible sources of revenue and is not meant as a recommendation, said a fiscal office spokesman.
It follows an order from Montgomery Circuit Judge Gene Reese two weeks ago that set Sept. 30, 1994, as the deadline for a plan to reform public schools in the state. In April, Reese ruled that the state public education system violates Alabama's constitution because it does not provide for adequate and equitably funded schools.
Reese has not specified how much Alabama must spend to finance a revamped public school system, which serves 450,000 students, or where the funds should come from. However, studies by education officials indicate that up to $1 billion in additional funding would be needed to equalize school funding in Alabama.
A task force appointed by Gov. Jim Folsom late last month urged a plan requiring $507 million in added state educational funding in the first year and, by the end of the 1990s, $942 million more annually.
State lawmakers have not yet come up with a funding plan, but may be asked to do so in the near future.
