(Via Sam Heldman:)

UA scholar's thesis blasts Alabama's tax structure

I didn't know anyone didn't know Alabama's tax structure was awful and regressive. I'm glad it's getting some attention. For instance, 70 percent of the state is timberland. Two percent of the state's revenue is property tax from timberland.

Interestingly, this wasn't a business school or poli-sci thesis, but a divinity thesis for Samford University, a Southern Baptist school.

The critique's theological premise is that Alabama must reform its regressive tax structure in order to be true to its strong Judeo-Christian tradition.

Theological commentary and Bible verses share pages with statistics.

The paper's epigraph quotes Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

As difficult as it is for me to be on the same side as the Southern Baptists (I was going to say "get in bed with", but you know the SBs and sex) if that's the way we have to go to do something about this state's tax structure, then Amen.