All Alabamians should have the resources they need to reach their potential and ensure a healthy, secure future. To realize that vision, we must make our state’s upside-down tax system more equitable. And we must secure adequate funding for unmet vital needs like Medicaid expansion and public transportation.

Alabama Arise’s new 2026 edition of The Alabama Tax and Budget Handbook explains how we can achieve those goals together. Packed with colorful graphs and illustrations, the handbook helps Alabamians better understand how budgets and taxes affect their everyday lives. It highlights how the state pays for key public services that benefit all of us, and it walks readers through how Alabama’s budgets become law each year.

The handbook also suggests dozens of policy changes to improve Alabama’s tax system and to ensure adequate funding for essential services like education and healthcare. Key recommendations include:

• Update the sales tax on goods and services, including eliminating the grocery tax.
• Make the income tax more progressive by increasing the standard deduction and establishing a state Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Eliminate the federal income tax deduction, a skewed tax break that overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest households.
• Increase overall property tax rates while increasing the homestead exemption to protect homeowners with low incomes.
• Enhance budgetary flexibility through gradual earmarking reform.

Visit alarise.org/taxandbudgethandbook to read the handbook and request a print copy today.