Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) is still not buying some of the arguments he’s heard against extending the tax cut on overtime pay passed by lawmakers in 2023.
The state lawmaker is fighting to keep the tax cut in place despite new concerns about it causing a larger shortfall in revenue going to the state’s Education Trust Fund (ETF) than was originally projected.
“We see President Trump prioritizing cutting the tax on overtime,” Daniels said Tuesday on FM Talk 106.5. “And in Alabama we should be proud that we were able to do it first and really get that idea to elevate to the national level…And so for me, for us to be against extending the tax that we were so proud to pass approximately two years ago is ridiculous — for us to just sit on our hands and not extend the income, eliminating the tax overtime for hard working Alabamians.”
Daniels pushed back against the claim by some that the tax cut has encouraged too much fraud in the state.
“They’re saying that there are people that are taking advantage of this, ‘They’re taking advantage of the system. Well, they’re taking advantage of the system.’ That’s why you add enforcement mechanism,” Daniels argued. “That’s why you write rules to force them to eliminate or reduce the opportunity for fraud. And so let’s, let’s stop playing games and talking around the issue and talk directly to the voters.”
While Alabama Republicans are coalescing around a tax bill that would cut the grocery tax, among other things, Daniels believes cutting taxes on overtime pay has more of an impact for Alabamians.
RELATED: Daniels wants overtime tax exemption extended despite ETF revenue shortfall
“When you eliminate one cent of the sales tax on groceries,” he explained, “you’re talking about one cent on a dollar, and I’ve not heard one constituent called me and say ‘Thank you, Anthony, for cutting the grocery tax one cent. You know, I bought a car, I bought a carton of eggs, and you saved me five cents.’ I mean, let’s be realistic. I’m all for cutting the grocery tax, but I’m also more interested in figuring out ways to to get the price point to where, where we’re encouraging farmers and investing in local farmers to be able to sell eggs directly to do to the local stores or to our farmers in different areas of agriculture in general, to sell directly to the store, so that we can kind of drive down costs.”
Daniels said he wants some of his Republican colleagues who support extending the tax cut on overtime pay to stand up and say so.
“[S]o there are very few [Republicans] that are really against extending it,” he said. “But for the most part, the majority of them are in support of it. I just hope that at some point they will find the courage to speak up and prioritize which tax cuts will make the most difference and which does not. And so I hope that they will, once this bill is introduced on March 18, that they will start speaking up about it.”
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 X @Yaffee
