During her State of the State Speech Tuesday, Gov. Kay Ivey called for a one-time tax rebate for Alabamians.
“I am calling on you to put nearly a billion dollars back into the hands of hardworking, taxpaying Alabamians through one-time rebates of $400,” Ivey said. “That means $800 for our working families, and it couldn’t come at a better time.”
While the move is expected to get broad support from lawmakers, some think a permanent tax cut would be better option.
Wednesday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth reacted to Ivey’s speech and discussed what he would support to reduce the tax burden for the people of Alabama.
“I’ve been on the record that I support tax cuts over rebates,” Ainsworth said, “but certainly I want to look over and study it and find out. We just got the information last night, the details, so I need to look over that before I can give a final opinion, but in general … I think we’ve got to do tax cuts instead of a one-time rebate.”
Ainsworth said he believes the time is now to cut taxes because the state’s economy is in good shape.
“I think when the state is doing well, the economy is doing well, giving a tax cut, permanent, back to the people, is a better option, in my opinion, than a rebate,” he said. “But also I want to look over the proposal before I comment on it 100%. I haven’t had a chance to look over the proposal, yet.”
One of the taxes that Ainsworth thinks the state could cut is the grocery tax, which is being debated in the Legislature.
“Yeah I support it,” he said. “I’ve been supporting it since I’ve been in the House. Get rid of the grocery tax. You look at what the Biden economy has done, it’s raised the cost of goods. If we could lower the cost that would help every Alabamian in our state by getting rid of the grocery tax.
“That’s certainly something I’ve always supported and would support now and think that’s a great idea.”
Overall, Ainsworth said Ivey’s speech and her proposals were excellent.
“I thought the governor gave a good message of talking about how well the state’s doing,” he said. “Also talked about different challenges that we’ve got to continue to tackle … Obviously with anybody I’m not going to agree 100% on everything.
“I think some of the things we could tweak, but I thought she did a great job.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
