Alabama Still Collecting Tax For Confederate Vets

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=138533139

MOUNTAIN CREEK, Ala. July 20, 2011, 06:23 am ET

The last of the more than 60,000 Confederate veterans who came home to Alabama after the Civil War died generations ago, yet residents are still paying a tax that supported the neediest among them.

Despite fire-and-brimstone opposition to taxes among many in a state that still has "Heart of Dixie" on its license plates, officials never stopped collecting a property tax that once funded the Alabama Confederate Soldiers' Home, which closed 72 years ago. The tax now pays for Confederate Memorial Park, which sits on the same 102-acre tract where elderly veterans used to stroll. snip

Alabama's tax structure was enshrined in its 1901 Constitution, passed after Reconstruction at a time when historians say state legislators' main goal was to keep power in the hands of wealthy white landowners by disenfranchising blacks and poor whites.

[Blue_Tires]

1. kicked

[mfcorey1]

2. This has got to be a joke! Talk about antiquated things still on the books...

[Recursion]

3. A dedicated tax to pay for a public amenity?

I don't know that I'd call that antiquated. I also think there are still a couple of living widows who get state benefits.

[starroute]

4. The last Confederate widow died in 2008

Apparently there was a trend in the early 20th century for poor young women to marry elderly Civil War veterans because of the pensions. But the last one died three years ago -- and the last one in Alabama in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maudie_Hopkins

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Martin

She lived in obscurity for most of her life, but gained media attention starting in the 1990s. In the final years of her life she became a symbol for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, appearing at some of their rallies. The state of Alabama had long since stopped issuing pension checks to the widows of Confederate veterans, believing them all to be dead, but with assistance from Sons of Confederate Veterans and other supporters Alberta began receiving a Confederate widow's pension in 1996 and was awarded backpay as well.

Mrs. Martin appeared to relish the attention the media brought her and attended many Civil War themed re-enactments and other events as an honored guest. She lived her final years in a nursing home paid for by various supporters. Following her death at the age of 97 on May 12, 2004, she was given an "1860s style ceremony" with full honors as the widow of a Confederate veteran.

[Recursion]

5. Cool, thanks

I didn't realize they had all died.

Still, I support the idea of dedicated taxes (eg a specific mill to pay for a specific park); once you get past the CSA connection I think this is a good thing.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. Pennsylvanians are still paying a tax on alcohol which was created to pay for damages caused by

the 1936 Johnstown Flood.