Heads and tales: Finance without the romance

poor The first step: Kudos to Rep. John Knight, who after years of work and overcoming the Legislature’s indifference and the education lobby’s resistance, succeeded with a tax cut for the poor in Alabama. The state was ranked first in taxing the poor before, and while the bill (expected to be signed into law soon) provides modest relief for families, it’s a start. The new rank: No. 4. Maybe we can stop taxing food at some point, for fun.
• Alabama lowering income taxes on working poor [Associated Press]

Met effect: Kudos to Art Clarkson, the legendary sports owner and promoter. He talked a Birmingham suburb into spending $12 million to build the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium for minor league baseball. It opened in 1988. Nowadays, it generates $10 million in spending for the annual SEC baseball tournament and will net another $5 million for a nationally televised four-day beach volleyball tourney in July — on top of plain ol’ Barons baseball, which kicks off tonight. Surprisingly, it doesn’t pay for itself with the city, but makes up for a lot of it in tax revenues. The Barons schedule all events there, and the general manager said, “This is the most used and versatile sports venue in Birmingham.” Pretty good for no dome.
• Met all set for 19th opener [Birmingham News]

Money me’s: Students at Minor, Shades Valley and Hoover high schools have the chance to become budding capitalists. Close to 200 have enrolled in the Academy of Finance, a slate of courses teaching finance, business, banking, economics and more. The courses are tied to the New York-based National Academy Foundation. About 30 percent of the academy’s “graduates” go into a career in finance. We know plenty of adults who need to be enrolled yesterday.
• Show 'em the money — youths learn its use [Birmingham News]

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