Seniors Support Knight Sales Tax Plan

The state branch of the AARP and the Silver-Haired Legislature are urging the Senate to pass Rep. John Knight's plan to remove the state-portion of the sales tax on food.

In a press conference today, representatives from both groups stood with Knight, Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, and representatives from Alabama Arise.

Sanders sponsored the failed Senate version of the Knight plan.

Joan Carter, state director of AARP, said 9 out of 10 people who now live on a fixed income would benefit from passing the Knight plan.

"All of us will benefit because we all buy groceries," she said.

Bill Adams, Speaker of the House for the Alabama Silver-Haired Legislature, said if he were in the Legislature he would let the people vote.

Adams served in the House during former Gov. Fob James' administration representing Cherokee and Etowah counties between 1979 to 1982.

He said legislators "have no right to say to the people of Alabama that they are not smart enough to decide.

"They should pass this bill and give people and opportunity to vote," he said.

Knight said he doesn't see why anyone would vote against the allowing Alabamians to vote on the issue.

He also said he is against a Republican effort in the Senate to tie the passage of the grocery tax bill to a measure that returns property appraisals to every four years.

"I don't see how anyone could stand in the way of allowing people to vote," he said.

Sanders will handle Knight's bill in the Senate. He said he will do what has to get it through this year, but was vague on whether the bill would come up today or Thursday.