Riley says he wants to ease tax burden on the poor

US Congressman Bob Riley, who is running for Alabama governor (and is leading in the polls, though I think he's going to lose anyway), is a Republican. And I don't think he got the party's memo.

The Alabama tax system is (in my mind) a scandal. The state relies heavily on sales taxes, which are placed across the board, including on food. In some areas, they reach over ten percent. There is an income tax, but it's a terribly designed one. As it works out, the tax burden falls disproportionately upon the poor and lower-middle class.

Riley is from Clay County, in East-Central Alabama; I have some family connections there. It's extremely rural, as rural as anywhere east of the Mississippi. (If this link works, the star is the county seat of Ashland.) Clay County's most famous native son, by far, is Hugo Black.