Alabama Republican Chairman John Wahl said he’s “optimistic” that state lawmakers will pass tax cuts before the end of the 2025 session.
“I’m very optimistic that we’re going to get this across the finish line,” Wahl said Monday on WVNN. “So we have surpluses. We have an opportunity. There’s something that’s going to be done with this money. And I think this is the package of bills that deserves to get attention.”
Wahl announced last week that he had been working alongside Alabama House leadership on a package of bills that would enact sweeping tax cuts to provide financial relief for Alabama families. Revenue-altering measures, like tax cuts, may only originate in the Alabama House, not the Senate. On Thursday, lawmakers in the lower chamber proposed just that.
“[W]e see Donald Trump leading the line in Washington D.C.,” Wahl continued, “really taking these American first policies, saying, ‘Look, let’s cut wasteful spending. Let’s actually believe, as Republicans, believe in limited government again. Let’s go back to the basics.’ And part of that is returning money to the people where it belongs. And so we want to let people keep more of their hard earned money.”
State Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville) introduced the three bills in the State House, including one that would reduce the tax on groceries in the Yellowhammer State.
“It’s time we have families struggling to make ends meet, people on fixed incomes,” Wahl said about the bill. “Let’s cut the grocery tax. This is a tax that benefits everyone who eats, and we all eat.”
The second bill will double the tax exemption on retirement income, which Wahl said is needed in a state like Alabama.
“We’ve got a lot of seniors on fixed incomes we want to take and we’re all going to be seniors at some point, and this makes it permanent change where it allows people to pull money deduct a higher level, pulling money out of retirement plans,” he said. “We’re doubling that threshold. The exemption is currently $6,000 and we’re going to take that to $12,000.”
The third bill will increase the income floor for the standard deduction and expanding the income threshold for the maximum dependent exemption, which Wahl believes helps average middle income families across the state.
“[T]he final step is lowering the state’s income tax making sure that thresholds are lower,” he said, “that deductions are higher, for like a child’s tax credit, things that are going to help every single Alabamian get a little bit of tax relief with the state income tax.”
“This these four bills were targeted more towards current relief that would affect all Alabamians and so looking at things that are going to really bring down the tax burden immediately, facing every single Alabama citizen, every family, every small business, and make sure they get immediate tax relief,” he added.
