Friday, July 22, 2011
Director Bill Rambo at Confederate Memorial Park (Photo: Dave Martin, AP)
Nearly 150 years after the Civil War, Alabama is still paying taxes that originated in response to that conflict. And it’s aggravating historic site lovers across the state.
In an effort to finance care for about 60,000 Confederate veterans, Alabama imposed a property tax that continued for generations, even after all of the surviving soldiers passed away. The state kept collecting the revenue and now uses it to cover the operating costs for Confederate Memorial Park, which sits where the old-soldiers home used to be in Mountain Creek.
The tax brings in about $400,000 a year, which allows the “beautifully maintained” park to stand out among its struggling brethren elsewhere. Many historic sites are fighting just to have enough money to mow the lawn in cash-strapped Alabama.
“Everyone is jealous of us,” says longtime park director Bill Rambo. That would include the workers at Helen Keller’s privately run former home who fear losing letters written by Keller because of a lack of state funding for preservation.
Earlier in the year, Governor Robert Bentley’s budget eliminated funding for historic sites, including the park, but protests spearheaded by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy saved the day and the park escaped unscathed.
However, at least one legislator hasn’t given up the fight for equality among state-supported historic sites.
“We should not be spending one nickel for that," said Rep. Alvin Holmes, a black Democrat from Montgomery. “I'm going to try to get rid of it.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff, Ken Broder
Civil War Taxes Still Being Assessed (by Jay Reeves, Associated Press)
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