Filling out your Census form is quick and easy. It only takes about 10 minutes to answer 10 questions. You won’t have to do it again for 10 years. And your answers are completely confidential.
It may not seem like much, but the stakes are high. The accuracy of Alabama’s 2020 Census count will shape our state and local communities every day. Census results determine how many U.S. House members represent each state. They also guide the distribution of more than $700 billion in federal resources every year.
Alabama Arise organizer Mike Nicholson speaks to Madison County community representatives about the Census on Jan. 28 in Huntsville. Arise has partnered with VOICES for Alabama’s Children to conduct similar meetings across the state.
That money funds health coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), known as ALL Kids in Alabama. It also supports Head Start, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and many other services that help struggling families.
Census outreach across Alabama
Alabama Arise is part of a statewide effort to protect these programs by getting as many Alabamians counted as possible. We’ve teamed with VOICES for Alabama’s Children to travel to as many counties as we can to meet with folks and come up with a plan to make sure everyone is counted. We’re providing information and assistance to grassroots partners so they can help their communities understand how the Census affects Alabama.
Alabama Arise organizer Debbie Smith (left) speaks to Madison County community representatives about the Census on Jan. 28 in Huntsville.
Please help us spread the word. In the coming weeks, we’ll share more information about the Census’ importance and tips on persuading your community to participate. No one is a better messenger for your community than you, and Alabama’s future depends on it!
The Alabama Legislature’s 2020 regular session has begun, and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead to make life better for struggling Alabamians. Arise’s Pres Harris explains why we need you with us at Legislative Day on Feb. 25. She also highlights some early progress on payday lending reform.
Alabamians deserve a justice system that sentences fairly, provides helpful rehabilitative services and keeps people safe during incarceration. But Alabama often falls catastrophically short of fulfilling those obligations.
Our state’s prisons are violent and poorly staffed. As a result, they often function as little more than warehouses to keep people locked up until their sentences end.
The crisis in Alabama’s prisons has cost many lives already and shows no sign of stopping. Gov. Kay Ivey’s Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy formed last year to propose steps to fix the problems. The study group published its recommendations last week. Unfortunately, they fall far short of advocating the system-wide changes Alabama needs to create an effective, humane corrections system.
Investments in mental health care, substance use disorder treatments would help thousands
Alabama needs to provide a pathway to full societal participation for people caught up in the criminal justice system. That pathway starts with treatment resources for mental health issues and substance use disorders that lead many people to incarceration. This is a public health problem, and our state can’t imprison its way out.
The study group’s recommendations fail to address Alabama’s urgent need for Medicaid expansion, but the governor should expand Medicaid anyway. Without that step, the path toward lasting, meaningful criminal justice reform becomes much more difficult.
Significant sentencing reform, fair parole hearings are necessary
Alabama’s sentencing practices need broad improvements beyond the limited relief valves endorsed in the study group’s report. The study group recommended the reintroduction of certain post-conviction motions for relief. It also proposed allowing people who are incarcerated to petition for sentence reduction when their sentence would be lower under current guidelines.
These moves would help, but they aren’t enough to fix a broken system. Alabama needs broader reforms like an end to the Habitual Felony Offender Act and sentence reductions for some nonviolent felonies. Many lawmakers may view such changes as politically risky, but that doesn’t make them any less necessary.
Dena Dickerson, executive director of the Offender Alumni Association, speaks during an Oct. 3, 2019, news conference at the State House in Montgomery. Dickerson was one of dozens of supporters of Alabamians for Fair Justice (AFJ) who assembled to show support for reforms to make Alabama’s corrections system more humane and restorative. Alabama Arise is a member of the AFJ coalition.
Alabama’s aging, overcrowded prisons won’t fix themselves. Just last week, the state closed large portions of Holman Correctional Facility in Escambia County, citing its dangerous structural dilapidation. The Department of Corrections is trying to find long-term placements for more than 600 people who were housed at Holman.
The study group also didn’t address the logjam that the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles has created with its near-total stoppage of paroles in recent months. Parole hearings aren’t appropriate places to retry cases against a person applying for parole. The focus must be on whether applicants pose a risk to the community, not whether their release would garner bad press.
Better preparation for release would reduce recidivism
The study group identified several good opportunities to reduce the odds that a person will end up back in prison. Educational incentive time and increased access to training would help provide people with reachable goals they can use to build a stable life outside of prison.
Pre-release supervision for all people leaving prison would provide them with needed guidance upon reentering society. Ensuring that people have driver’s licenses or other appropriate identification also would remove barriers to rebuilding a life. So would granting people more flexibility to report to their parole officers outside of their scheduled work hours.
Alabama should go even further in easing reentry and reducing recidivism. Drug courts and mental health courts are vital ways to reduce the toll of addiction and mental health crises. But Alabama’s alternative courts don’t operate under a standardized system. The study group didn’t recommend a uniform system for operating these courts or improving access to them. But the Legislature should address that need this year.
Modest improvements won’t cut it
The federal government already has taken notice of the moral atrocity that is Alabama’s prison system. The study group’s recommendations would seal up some cracks, help hundreds of people and remedy some prior oversights. But the suggestions don’t do enough to reduce the overcrowding that threatens to trigger federal takeover. And they aren’t enough to transform Alabama’s criminal justice system into one truly focused on rehabilitation first.
Instead of warehousing people until their sentences end, Alabama should ensure they can participate in society when they get out. The study group’s recommendations are all good steps that would improve our corrections system. But lawmakers will have to be significantly bolder if they want to build a more humane, more restorative criminal justice system that works for all Alabamians.
Alabama Arise members have worked for more than three decades to build a brighter, more inclusive future for our state. And as the Legislature’s 2020 regular session starts Tuesday, we’re proud to renew that commitment.
Below, Arise executive director Robyn Hyden highlights some key goals for the session, including Medicaid expansion and untaxing groceries.
How you can make a difference
Together, we can turn our shared vision for a better Alabama into a reality. Here are three ways you can help:
(1) Become an Arise individual member. Numbers matter. The more members we have, the louder our voice for change is at the State House. If you’re not yet an Arise member, click here to become one today. If you’re already a member, please ask your friends and neighbors to join us as well!
(3) Spread the word about our issue priorities. The more people learn about our movement, the more support we gain. Read more about our 2020 issue priorities and share this information with your friends:
Together, we can make Alabama a place where everyone’s voice is heard and everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Together, we can build a better Alabama!
The federal Medicaid changes announced Thursday won’t affect anyone now enrolled in Alabama Medicaid. But they could put coverage at risk in the years ahead for hundreds of thousands of Alabamians. This is a worrisome step down a road to increased human suffering and greater financial strain for struggling families.
Guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would allow states to ask for federal permission (known as a waiver) to receive a block grant – a capped amount of federal Medicaid money – to cover working-age adults without disabilities under Medicaid expansion. In exchange, states would receive new powers that can be used to loosen Medicaid’s guaranteed patient protections.
The results could be devastating for newly covered adults who already struggle to make ends meet. For example, states could ask for a waiver to deny Medicaid coverage for certain prescription drugs. They also could seek to take coverage away from people who cannot afford to pay premiums or meet a stringent work requirement.
The waiver plan also could jeopardize state budgets. Under Medicaid’s current structure, the federal government shares all costs with states. But a block grant would leave states solely responsible for covering any costs above the capped amount. This would make it harder for Alabama to respond to health emergencies, natural disasters, economic downturns and other events that increase the need for health care.
A block grant is not a viable alternative to Medicaid expansion
In the 36 states that have adopted Medicaid expansion, it has brought significant gains in public health, family economic security and rural hospital stability. (Alabama is one of just 14 states that have failed to expand Medicaid to cover adults with low incomes.)
The CMS plan threatens these advances in important ways. First, it would weaken eligibility and coverage protections for patients, making their coverage more expensive and less comprehensive. And second, it would limit the federal funding that states can get to support health services. That would reduce the positive impact that expansion has on state economies.
All Alabamians deserve an opportunity at better health for our families, our workforce and our communities. Our state should reject capped funding and harmful barriers to care that would put our bare-bones Medicaid at further risk. Instead, our elected officials should move Alabama forward by adopting Medicaid expansion.
The Bible says that “to everything there is a season.” And we’re increasingly optimistic that the season has finally arrived for real tax reform in Alabama.
For more than a decade, Alabama Arise has worked to end the state’s 4% sales tax on groceries. It’s a regressive, punitive tax that costs struggling Alabamians the equivalent of two weeks’ worth of groceries each year. Legislation to untax groceries passed the House in 2008 but came up one vote short in the Senate. Arise has supported similar legislation in the years since, but it hasn’t come that close to passage again.
So why wouldn’t the Legislature cut the state sales tax on groceries? Ending a regressive and unpopular tax would seem to be an easy lift for even the most skeptical legislator. And that would be true if the vote were simply to end the state grocery tax.
But eliminating the tax without replacement revenue would strip $480 million out of the Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget. It would be irresponsible to take that much funding away from public schools, especially given Alabama’s history of underfunding education. Whether and how to replace that revenue has been a sticking point in the grocery tax debate.
How to untax groceries without costing education a dime
It’s crucial to replace the grocery tax revenue without hurting the people who would benefit most from the tax’s elimination. Fortunately, Alabama has a way to untax groceries while protecting both struggling families and education funding.
That solution would be to end an unusual tax loophole that primarily benefits the richest Alabamians: the federal income tax (FIT) deduction. This loophole allows people to deduct their federal income tax payments on their state income taxes. Because wealthy people pay more in federal income taxes on average, 80% of the FIT deduction’s benefit goes to the top 20% of taxpayers in Alabama.
The FIT deduction is a skewed tax break for rich households. And it’s one big reason Alabama’s tax system is upside down. For those who earn $30,000 a year, the deduction saves them about $27 on average. But for the top 1% of taxpayers, the FIT break is worth an average of more than $11,000 a year.
Only two other states offer a full FIT deduction like Alabama does. (Three other states offer a partial deduction.) Ending the FIT deduction would bring an additional $782 million a year into the education budget, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. (Ending the FIT deduction on corporate income taxes would raise another $100 million or so.) That would be more than enough to remove the state sales tax on groceries without hurting public schools. And for a large majority of Alabamians, the net result would be a tax cut.
Legislators also are exploring the idea of untaxing groceries and replacing the revenue by capping the FIT deduction. SB 144, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, would end the state grocery tax and limit the FIT deduction to $6,000 for individuals and $12,000 for couples. The bill wouldn’t raise additional money for education, but it would cover the cost of untaxing groceries.
You can help end the grocery tax this year
We’re seeing promising signs that 2020 could be the year the Legislature finally ends the state grocery tax. After passing an unpopular gas tax increase in 2019, some key legislators have been talking about giving a tax break to families hit hardest by higher transportation costs.
Arise has met with many legislators in recent months to discuss the importance of taking the state sales tax off groceries. We’ve found widespread agreement that the time is right to make that happen. And many legislators are finally willing to consider closing the unfair loophole that the FIT deduction opened up in our income tax system.
Happy anniversary – not! 2020 marks the 10th year of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, but not in Alabama. We’re one of just 14 states that have rejected federal funding to extend affordable health coverage to adults with low incomes. And soon, Kansas may cut that number to 13.
The stakes have only gotten higher as time has passed. Over the last 10 years, Alabama has:
Seen 13 hospital closures, including seven rural ones.
Given up more than $1 billion a year in federal Medicaid funding.
Forfeited a similar amount in related economic activity.
Allowed thousands of preventable deaths.
Stranded more than 220,000 Alabamians in the coverage gap, unable to qualify for Medicaid or afford private coverage.
Left tens of thousands more struggling to pay for health insurance they can barely afford.
After a decade of missed opportunity, Alabama needs to invest in our people and our future. Uninsured working parents, caregivers, veterans, people awaiting disability determinations, adult students and other Alabamians with low wages are putting off needed health care. Nearly 90% of our rural hospitals are operating in the red. People and communities across our state are suffering unnecessarily, and it’s time to do something about it.
What will it take to move Alabama forward?
This can and should be the year for Medicaid expansion in Alabama. It’s an overdue move that would bring our federal tax dollars home to stabilize our rural hospitals and clinics. It would provide critical investment in local economies. And it would increase economic security for struggling Alabamians.
Success would not require passing a bill. Gov. Kay Ivey could simply request a Medicaid rule change raising the eligibility limit for adults, including those without children. A legislative panel that reviews rule changes could allow Medicaid to seek permission from Washington. If that gets the OK, Medicaid would simply factor expansion costs into its next annual budget.
Arise members have identified Medicaid expansion as a top priority. It’s the single biggest step Alabama could take to make life better for people with low incomes. And we’re working hard to make it happen.
Safety net programs are designed to protect us when times get tough. But a recent wave of legislative and administrative attacks to those programs has threatened vital food and health assistance for millions of families across Alabama and the nation.
The stakes are high for people who struggle to make ends meet. Medicaid is a health care lifeline for one in four Alabamians. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps one in six Alabamians keep food on the table. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program provides meager but essential cash assistance for thousands of parents living in deep poverty.
All of these services improve lives. But numerous legislative plans could erect harmful barriers that keep struggling Alabamians from getting the help they need to survive.
Public transportation is vital infrastructure for a state looking toward the future. It allows people who lack other transportation options – including seniors, people with disabilities, and people who can’t afford a car – to get to work, go to the doctor and meet other basic needs. Reliable public transportation strengthens communities and makes a state more attractive to employers.
Public transportation funding would be an investment in our state’s economy and quality of life. Alabama could create public transit options in rural and suburban areas where they don’t exist now. Existing services could run later and more often. And all of these investments would support hundreds of stable, good-paying jobs.
Voting is an essential tool for people to speak out about the future they want. By breaking down barriers to voting, we promote greater civic engagement. And we make it easier for folks to make their voices heard about issues that matter in their communities.
Alabama’s sad history of racist voting restrictions means our state has an ongoing moral obligation to strengthen voting rights. And our elected officials have numerous policy options to remove harmful barriers to voting.
These policy changes would strengthen our state’s democracy by extending voting access to hundreds of thousands more Alabamians. That would promote higher civic participation and stronger community involvement. And it would make our society more just and inclusive.
