“As y’all know, our tax system is upside down,” Arise’s Robyn Hyden tells WRBL 3 in Columbus, Ga. “The people with the least to give get taxed the most. At the same time, people at the top don’t pay their fair share.”
Category: In the News
Alabama Arise lobbies for grocery tax repeal
Alabama should “end the grocery tax quickly and responsibly,” Arise board vice president Ana Delia Valeriano tells Alabama News Network in Montgomery. “This is the year to untax groceries once and for all.”
Alabama Arise members urge lawmakers to repeal grocery tax
The grocery tax is “unconscionable. It’s immoral. And it’s an attack on basic survival,” Arise’s Robyn Hyden tells WSFA 12 in Montgomery. Alabama can untax groceries and protect school funding by ending the state deduction for federal income taxes.
‘Immoral and unacceptable’: Alabama’s grocery tax burden must end, Alabama Arise says
Alabama’s state grocery tax is “one of the most immoral and unacceptable features of our tax system,” Arise’s Robyn Hyden tells the Montgomery Advertiser. “It’s a tax on survival.”
Payday loan bill dies, but issue not dead
Alabama borrowers pay nearly $100 million a year in fees for high-cost payday loans. “The fact that this bill got shut down in committee does not negate the fact that there is a massive need for reform,” Arise’s Dev Wakeley tells Alabama Daily News.
Payday lending restriction bill fails in Senate committee
An Alabama Senate committee blocked the 30 Days to Pay bill despite broad public support for payday lending reform. “The Legislature has had multiple opportunities to act, and I’m really discouraged to see this committee not move this bill forward,” Arise’s Robyn Hyden tells WSFA 12 in Montgomery.
Training program gives job opportunities to food assistance clients
“Most people on SNAP who are of working age are already working, but probably not the kind of jobs you could get with a welding or machinist certificate,” Arise’s Carol Gundlach tells The Anniston Star.
Prison policy recommendations put major focus on recidivism
Alabama’s lack of investment in mental health care and substance use disorder treatment is a huge factor in our state’s prison overcrowding. “The biggest way to address it would be Medicaid expansion,” Arise’s Dev Wakeley tells WSFA 12 in Montgomery.
What could President Trump’s new Medicaid funding model mean for Alabama?
Instead of accepting a federal block grant, “Alabama’s best option is to go for full Medicaid expansion,” Arise’s Jim Carnes tells ABC 33/40 in Birmingham. “[That] would bring the maximum federal dollars in the state, and it would guarantee all the people newly covered under Medicaid expansion the same protections anyone receiving Medicaid now gets.”
In Alabama: The work to halt falling rates of uninsured children
Children’s health care is “one of the few bragging points that we have in our health care system,” Arise’s Jim Carnes tells Equal Voice News. But Alabama has seen a “downward turn” in its uninsured rate for children since 2016. Carnes discusses how Medicaid expansion would help families get and keep the health coverage they need to survive and thrive.