This is one of those things that you just can't believe still exists in 2015, even in Alabama.
Years and years ago the state of Alabama passed a property tax to fund pensions for Confederate soldiers and their widows.
The tax once brought in millions for Confederate pensions, but the old soldiers and their wives slowly died off and by 1939 they were all gone and the Alabama Confederate Soldiers Home that was funded by the tax closed down.
The tax, however, lives on and today a small portion of it (about $400,000) funds the 102-acre Confederate Memorial Park, where Confederate battle flags still fly on the site of the old veterans home.
What makes this especially galling -- other than the obvious fact of state taxpayers funding a Confederate park -- is that the Confederate park is swimming in money thanks to the dedicated tax while the state is threatening to close down several state parks for lack of funding.
Legislators whittled away at the Confederate tax through the decades, and millions of dollars that once went to the home and pensions now go to fund veteran services, the state welfare agency and other needs. But the park still gets 1 percent of one mill, and its budget for this year came to $542,469, which includes money carried over from previous years plus certificates of deposit.
All that money has created a manicured, modern park that's the envy of other Alabama historic sites, which are funded primarily by grants, donations and friends groups. Legislators created the park in 1964 during a period that marked both the 100th anniversary of the Civil War and the height of the civil rights movement in the Deep South.
Meanwhile, things are not so rosy at other state historic sites:
Workers at Helen Keller's privately run home in northwest Alabama fear losing letters written by the famed activist because of a lack of state funding for preservation of artifacts. On the Gulf Coast at Dauphin Island, preservationists say the state-owned Fort Gaines is in danger of being undermined by waves after nearly 160 years standing guard at the entry to Mobile Bay.
And up to 15 state parks
face shutdown due to lack of funding.
Fifteen of Alabama's state parks, including Mt. Cheaha, Lake Guntersville and Lake Lurleen, could close this year if state lawmakers pass the proposed 2016 legislative budget.
If all 15 of the parks close, that would leave only seven state parks open in Alabama.
Only seven state parks would be left. But Alabama would still have a finely manicured site where the Confederate battle flag still flaps in the breeze.
Not many people even knew the obscure tax was still rolling along.
State Rep. Alvin Holmes, a black Democrat who's been in the Legislature since 1974, said he thought funding for the park had been slashed.
"We should not be spending one nickel for that," said Holmes, of Montgomery. "I'm going to try to get rid of it."
Unfortunately, with Republican super majorities in the state House and Senate and a GOP governor and groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy (yes, they still exist) lobbying to keep the tax, Holmes stands zero chance of getting rid of it.