TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

Alabama Collecting Civil War Tax

For veterans’ home closed in 1939.

Alabamans like to portray themselves as living in one of the most antitax states in the U.S.—but they’re still paying taxes for those who fought for the state’s right to secede from the nation. In 1901, the state constitution established a property tax to pay for the Alabama Confederate Soldiers’ Home, a veterans’ residence. But even after the last veteran died in 1935—and the last widows moved out four years later—the state never stopped collecting the money. The site now houses Confederate Memorial Park, which receives some $400,000 from the tax. Park director Bill Rambo dismisses complaints: “Everyone is jealous of us.”