From Wikipedia, Alabama has the second lowest property taxes behind Hawaii.2.

Ask to see the minutes of the Council meeting where their STR regulations and excise tax were discussed so you can see not only what the final outcome was, but also see the comments from the staff and council members so you can see if they were entirely in support, somewhat in support, or strongly divided.

3) Any other differences in property taxes, tenant laws (I will be doing my due diligence here thoroughly as well), and investment sentiment between the two regions?

Everyone saw a small decline in the property taxes and stayed quiet.

Talk to a tax professional.

You will like tax time too. 

Well, they may have other properties doing great and need the tax write off... maybe they're expecting great appreciation of the property and will sell it later... maybe rents are rapidly rising and they expect to be cash flow positive in 20 years when they plan to retire anyhow... or after the mortgage is paid off...Who knows?

Net income = $39,240Monthly operating expenses are as follows: Trash - $33, Landscaping/yard - $66, Electric - tenants pay, Water - $95, Maintenance $87Monthly taxes about 3KSo, gross expenses are at $41,064If I'm doing the calculations correctly, my net operating income is -$21,888 and cap rate is -3.4%.Obviously the current numbers look terrible for this investment, but I feel like the rent should be raised significantly based on comps (above 2K each unit). 

That would cut into your expenses a good amount, add property taxes, insurance, property management, repairs, capex, and a small vacancy rate and you can see that number starts to go down rapidly.

When I talk to new investors, the first question I always ask is "Are you just looking for the investment benefits of real estate (cash flow, appreciation, tax benefits) or are you looking to build a side hustle business around real estate investing?"