Issue: Tax Reform

200+ Alabama Arise supporters rally in favor of reducing state grocery tax

By Chris Sanders
Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden speaks in support of untaxing groceries during Arise’s annual Legislative Day on March 20, 2025, in Montgomery. (Photo by Julie Bennett)

Alabama should reduce the state sales tax on groceries again this year and work toward a sustainable solution to end the tax permanently, Alabama Arise members told legislators Thursday.

More than 200 Arise supporters gathered Thursday at the State House in Montgomery to show their support for untaxing groceries. The advocates urged state senators to support HB 386 by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, which would reduce the state grocery tax from 3% to 2% beginning on Sept. 1. HB 386 passed the House 103-0 on Tuesday and now awaits Senate consideration.

“We’re here today to ask our lawmakers to continue what we started two years ago by reducing the state grocery tax again,” Alabama Arise board president Clyde Jones said at a news conference. “Reducing the grocery tax will make it easier for families across the state of Alabama to make ends meet. And it will be an important step toward our ultimate goal of untaxing groceries once and for all.”

The news conference was part of Arise’s annual Legislative Day event. Photos from the event are available here. A video of the news conference is available here. (Remarks start at the 3:50 mark.)

Building on a breakthrough in 2023

Alabama is one of only 10 states still taxing groceries. Three other states have ended their state tax but still allow local governments to tax food. The number of states reducing or eliminating their grocery tax has continued to grow in recent years. Most recently, Kansas ended its state grocery tax this year.

Arise members have advocated since the 1990s to eliminate Alabama’s grocery tax. That advocacy got results in 2023, when lawmakers voted unanimously to reduce the state grocery tax from 4% to 3%.

HB 386 presents an opportunity this year to continue the bipartisan progress toward untaxing groceries. Reducing the state grocery tax by 1 percentage point would save an average Alabama family of four around $150 per year, based on estimates using the moderate-cost food plan from the USDA’s cost of food at home reports.

“Our message today is simple: It is wrong to tax groceries,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “This is a highly regressive tax that drives many people deeper into poverty. Taxing food makes it harder for struggling families to put food on the table. It is a cruel tax on survival. This tax needs to end, and the sooner, the better.”

‘This is a moral issue’

Hyden expressed gratitude for Arise members’ persistent and determined advocacy to end the grocery tax. She also thanked Garrett and many other current and former legislative champions of untaxing groceries. Those lawmakers include Sens. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, and Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove; Reps. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, and Penni McClammy, D-Montgomery; and former Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery.

“This is not a partisan issue. This is a moral issue,” Hyden said. “We’re going to continue to work together to get HB 386 across the finish line with the help of our senators, and to find a sustainable way to fund our state government without taxing people deeper into poverty.”

Vote ‘Yes’ on HB 386: Help Alabama families by reducing the state grocery tax

By Alabama Arise
Alabama Arise supporters gather outside the State House in Montgomery during Arise’s Legislative Day on April 11, 2023. More than 100 Alabamians came to urge their legislators to end the state sales tax on groceries. Lawmakers reduced the state grocery tax from 4% to 3% in 2023 and now are considering another reduction in 2025.

Why Alabama needs to untax groceries

  • The grocery tax increases hunger rates and drives many struggling families deeper into poverty.
  • Alabama’s tax system is upside down. On average, people with low incomes pay a much higher share of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest households do.
  • The grocery tax is a major reason that Alabama’s tax system is so upside down. Grocery taxes take a much bigger bite out of household budgets for Alabamians with low and middle incomes than for wealthier people.
  • Most states have rejected the grocery tax. Alabama is one of only 10 states still taxing groceries.

How HB 386 would help people across Alabama

  • HB 386 by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, would reduce the state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2% starting on Sept. 1, 2025. This would build on the progress made in 2023, when the Legislature reduced the tax from 4% to 3%.
  • Reducing the state grocery tax by 1 percentage point would save an average Alabama family of four about $125 to $150 a year.

Bottom line

Alabama’s grocery tax is a cruel tax on survival. Lawmakers should pass HB 386 to continue the progress toward eliminating the state grocery tax once and for all. And they should work to identify more sustainable, less harmful options to fund public education and other vital services.

Another grocery tax reduction would be great news for every Alabamian

By Chris Sanders

Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, on Wednesday introduced HB 386, a bill to reduce the state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2% beginning on Sept. 1. The Alabama House Democrats also endorsed forthcoming legislation to end the state grocery tax during a news conference Wednesday. Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden released the following statement Thursday in response:

“Alabama Arise is excited to see widespread, bipartisan support for reducing the state sales tax on groceries. The grocery tax reduction in 2023 was an essential first step toward tax justice in Alabama, and we look forward to working with lawmakers to continue the progress on this vital issue this year.

“Further reducing and ultimately eliminating the state sales tax on groceries would provide meaningful help for Alabamians who struggle to make ends meet. Reducing the grocery tax benefits every Alabamian. And it is an important step toward righting the wrongs of our state’s upside-down tax system, which forces Alabamians with low and moderate incomes to pay a higher share of their incomes in state and local taxes than the wealthiest households.

“The state grocery tax is a cruel tax on survival. It drives many families deeper into poverty. And Arise remains committed to the goal of eliminating it entirely. Arise members from every corner of our state have advocated relentlessly for decades for Alabama to untax groceries. Our work will continue until the state grocery tax is in the dustbin of history where it belongs.

A woman pushes a grocery cart while her daughter stands next to her. Image text: "News release: Another grocery tax reduction would be great news for every Alabamian."

How to ensure the grocery tax reduction lasts

“It is important to ensure grocery tax elimination doesn’t harm our children’s education in the long term. Education Trust Fund revenues are strong enough for now to reduce the grocery tax without causing severe harm to school funding. But history tells us that good economic times don’t last forever. Lawmakers must work together to agree to a solution to untax groceries sustainably and responsibly.

“Arise is open to numerous ideas for replacement revenue, and we will continue working with the state’s Joint Study Commission on Grocery Taxation to find a path forward. We continue to support our longstanding proposal to replace grocery tax revenue by capping or ending the state income tax deduction for federal income tax payments. Alabama is the only state to allow this full deduction, which overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest households. Closing this skewed loophole would protect funding for public schools and ensure Alabama can afford to end the state sales tax on groceries forever.”

Arise 2025: How we’re working to build a better Alabama

By Alabama Arise

Alabama Arise believes in dignity, equity and justice for all. We believe in an Alabama where everyone’s voice is heard and everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. And we believe better public policies are the key to building a brighter future for our state.

Below, we’ll share some details of that vision with you before the Alabama Legislature’s regular session begins Feb. 4. We’ll focus on the crucial legislative priorities on our 2025 roadmap to change.

Graphic listing Alabama Arise's 2025 legislative priorities: Arise's roadmap to a better Alabama. The priorities are untaxing groceries, Medicaid expansion, voting rights, criminal justice reform, maternal and infant health, public transportation and death penalty reform.

It’s time to close Alabama’s health coverage gap

For more than a decade, Alabama has been outside looking in on a good deal. While hundreds of thousands of Alabamians continue to struggle without health insurance, state leaders have failed to expand Medicaid. A few loud voices have politicized an issue that never should have been political. And our state has paid the price in lost dollars, lost jobs and lost lives.

Alabama is one of 10 states that has yet to expand Medicaid. That inaction has left hundreds of thousands of Alabamians in a health coverage gap. We’re advocating to make this the year when our state closes that gap.

READ MORE – An Alabama solution: Closing the health coverage gap

Finish removing the state grocery tax

Alabama’s state sales tax on groceries is a cruel tax on survival, and Arise is committed to eliminating it. We were thrilled to see lawmakers pass legislation in 2023 to cut the state grocery tax in half after decades of persistent advocacy by our members. And we’ll continue advocating to remove the rest of the tax sustainably and responsibly. We’re grateful to serve on a state commission that is studying policy pathways to end the state grocery tax while protecting vital funding for public schools.

WATCH – The path forward in Alabama Arise’s work to untax groceries

Fund public transportation to improve life for all Alabamians

Alabama’s labor force participation rate is among the nation’s lowest. Only 58% of working-age adults reported they were actively working or looking for jobs as of November 2024. Our state also has nearly 100,000 more job openings than workers available to fill them. Yet 31% of Alabama job seekers cite transportation issues as the reason they are unemployed or underemployed, according to a study commissioned by the governor’s office.

Unfortunately, Alabama is one of only three states that has no state funding set aside to support public transportation. Alabama Arise will advocate for that to change during this legislative session.

READ MORE – Fund public transportation to improve life for all Alabamians

Expand voting rights to right past wrongs and safeguard democracy in Alabama

Voting rights are the foundation of our democracy, and we should do everything we can to protect them. However, since the U.S. Supreme Court stripped away federal preclearance of voting law changes in 2013, the Legislature has passed several harmful laws to create unnecessary barriers to voting rights in Alabama. This included 2024’s SB 1, which created a chilling effect for people trying in good faith to help Alabamians with absentee voting. Arise will advocate instead for positive steps to support voting rights, including passage of the Alabama Voting Rights Act, which would protect absentee voting and clarify voting procedures. Additionally, lawmakers will introduce bills to remove barriers to voting rights restoration for citizens released from incarceration.

READ MORE – Expand voting rights to right past wrongs and safeguard democracy in Alabama

It’s time for Alabama to prove we care about mothers and children

Healthy parents and healthy children mean a healthier future for Alabama. Comprehensive maternal and infant health care investments are crucial to ensure the health and safety of both infants and Alabamians of child-bearing age, especially postpartum mothers, pregnant women and future mothers. Lawmakers have numerous policy options to increase the number of health care providers and extend health coverage to more parents.

READ MORE – The Alabama Maternal Health Toolkit

School breakfast for all: What Alabama can do to help feed all of our kids

School breakfast for all would help reduce child hunger in Alabama, and it would go a long way toward the goal of guaranteeing a morning meal for every child in our state. School breakfast’s benefits are wide-ranging: It helps address chronic absenteeism, improves adolescent mental health, alleviates behavioral problems and improves test scores. Alabama Arise is pushing for a $16 million appropriation from the Education Trust Fund to ensure every district can pull down the maximum federal funding, and to give local schools the opportunity to offer no-cost breakfast for all Alabama children.

READ MORE – School breakfast for all: What Alabama can do to help feed all of our kids

Alabama’s death penalty practices remain unjust and unusually cruel

Americans increasingly oppose the death penalty. Gallup found that opposition to the death penalty more than doubled in the past 25 years. This may result from disturbingly high error rates in the system. For every 10 people executed since 1976, one innocent person on death row has been set free.

Alabama took an important step toward death penalty reform in 2017 by banning judicial overrides of juries’ sentencing decisions, and we will aim to work this session to make that ban retroactive. But the state’s death penalty scheme also remains broken in many other ways.

READ MORE – Alabama’s death penalty practices remain unjust and unusually cruel

Alabama’s parole system is still broken. How can we fix it?

The state’s parole system is a failure in both its design and in application of its own rules. We need to increase parole board oversight and eliminate racial disparities in parole. People also deserve to be able to attend their own parole hearings.

Arise’s suggested changes would be an important step in the direction of a more just Alabama, and they would mitigate some of the problems plaguing our state’s prison system overall.

READ MORE – Alabama’s parole system is still broken. How can we fix it?

Paid parental leave improves life for Alabama workers

Like any employer, our state should ensure its workers have jobs that support their ability to care for their families. The teachers, social workers and many other state employees who help look after our children and who build up Alabama for all the families in the state should be able to create and grow their own families without scrambling to pay the bills.

Paid parental leave is a common-sense policy that helps workers care for their families while maintaining their careers and financial well-being. State officials often have said Alabama is pro-family. Ensuring that teachers and state employees have paid parental leave is an important step to prove it.

READ MORE – Paid parental leave improves life for Alabama workers

56 Alabama groups urge Congress to reject tax cuts for the wealthy

By Chris Sanders

Congress should oppose efforts to increase tax breaks for wealthy Americans and highly profitable corporations this year, 56 organizations across Alabama wrote in a letter sent to Alabama’s congressional delegation Wednesday. Lawmakers instead should seek to boost tax credits that expand opportunities for working people and families, the letter said.

“We urge you and all members of the Alabama delegation to reject renewed or expanded tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our society,” the groups wrote. “And we urge you instead to provide meaningful tax reductions for ordinary families in Alabama and nationwide through an expanded Child Tax Credit and expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.”

Alabama Arise is among 56 organizations that signed the letter to the state’s two U.S. senators and seven U.S. representatives. Read the full letter here.

‘An opportunity to address long-standing inequities with our tax code’

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), enacted in 2017, increased federal deficits by nearly $2 trillion while lavishing tax cuts on the country’s wealthiest households. The law failed to live up to proponents’ claims that it would pay for itself or fuel wage increases for most workers, the organizations’ letter said.

Many TCJA provisions are set to expire this year, including numerous tax breaks that disproportionately benefit wealthy people. These include higher estate tax exemptions and a cut to the top marginal income tax rate. Other provisions are permanent and not up for renewal, including a 40% reduction of the corporate income tax rate. This tax break overwhelmingly benefits large, highly profitable corporations.

Proposals to renew and expand these tax breaks would be similarly skewed in favor of the wealthiest Americans. The White House’s proposed tax plan would lead on average to “a tax cut for the richest 5% of Americans and a tax increase for the other 95% of Americans,” according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonprofit tax policy research organization in Washington, D.C.

Lawmakers will have an opportunity during this year’s federal tax and budget debates to choose a better, more inclusive path, the Alabama organizations wrote.

“The expiration of these provisions [is] an opportunity to address long-standing inequities with our tax code and to raise more revenue to meet our country’s current obligations and address critical unmet needs,” the groups wrote.

Child Tax Credit, EITC improvements would reduce poverty, expand opportunity

A key TCJA provision that helped working families is also set to expire: an increase of the maximum Child Tax Credit (CTC) from $1,000 per child to the present $2,000 per child. Boosting the CTC is a proven way to ease suffering and expand economic opportunity, as 2021’s temporary CTC increase showed.

Congress in 2021 expanded the CTC for one year under the American Rescue Plan Act. The expansion increased the maximum credit for children under age 6 to $3,600, and for all other children to $3,000. It made the full CTC available to children living in families with low or no earnings. And it extended the credit to 17-year-olds, who previously were ineligible.

The benefits were swift and powerful, Census data showed. CTC payments helped families cover rising costs for necessities like food, utilities, rent and diapers. Overall, the policy kept more than 5 million Americans above the poverty line. It also contributed to a major nationwide reduction in the child poverty rate in 2021, with the Supplemental Poverty Measure for children falling from nearly 10% to about 5%.

Temporary improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in 2021 also eased hardship for people across Alabama. More than 280,000 Alabamians with low incomes benefited from the one-year EITC expansion. Nearly three in four had incomes below $20,400, according to ITEP estimates.

“No matter what you look like or where you’re from, we all believe in caring for our families and community,” the organizations wrote to Alabama’s congressional delegation. “Americans want you to meet the moment and put the future and well-being of all of us ahead of tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected.”

Read the full letter from Alabama Arise and 55 other organizations here.

Alabama Arise, 55 partner groups urge Congress to oppose more tax cuts for wealthy households

By Alabama Arise

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), enacted in 2017, increased federal deficits by nearly $2 trillion while lavishing tax cuts on the country’s wealthiest households. Many TCJA provisions are set to expire this year, including numerous provisions that disproportionately benefit wealthy people. Alabama Arise joined 55 partner organizations in a letter asking Alabama’s congressional delegation to oppose additional tax cuts for wealthy households and to support expansions of tax provisions that support working people and families. The full text of the letter is below.

Letter text

Dear Senators Tuberville and Britt and Representatives Aderholt, Rogers, Sewell, Palmer, Moore, Strong and Figures:

Congratulations on your election to the 119th Congress. As you know, the new Administration and Congressional Majority have made plans to prioritize extending and potentially expanding the 2017 tax law (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA), which is set to expire. We urge you to use the expiration of these provisions as an opportunity to address long-standing inequities with our tax code and to raise more revenue to meet our country’s current obligations and address critical unmet needs.

No matter what you look like or where you’re from, we all believe in caring for our families and community. People in our state work hard and are watching what happens in Congress. We give our all in so many ways: working as teachers, delivery drivers and nurses, volunteering at the local food bank or neighborhood cleanup, and caring for our friends and loved ones. Regardless of who they voted for in November, the vast majority of Americans were not voting to give another tax cut to the wealthy, or for another corporate tax cut.

The 2017 tax law failed in many ways, and there’s no mandate to repeat the mistakes of the past.

  • The proponents of these tax cuts said big corporate tax cuts would trickle down to big increases in wages for workers – but the typical worker got nothing from it.
  • They said the bill would pay for itself – but it actually increased the deficit by $2 trillion.
  • They said the tax cuts would create jobs – but the evidence doesn’t show that.

If Congress decides to give new corporate tax cuts and extend other provisions of the TCJA, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says it would increase deficits by about $7.5 trillion over 10 years. We also know that the Administration’s tax plan favors the rich. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that it would lead “to a tax cut for the richest 5 percent of Americans and a tax increase for the other 95 percent of Americans.”

Americans want you to meet the moment and put the future and well-being of all of us ahead of tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected. Alabamians prioritize funding services and taxing the wealthy by a wide, bipartisan margin. According to a recent survey:

  • 75% of Alabamians support raising taxes on wealthy corporations.
  • 75% of Alabamians support raising taxes on the wealthiest households in the nation.
  • 76% of Alabamians support raising taxes on households earning more than $400,000 annually.
  • 73% of Alabamians support increasing child tax credits for Alabama families.

Our 56 collective organizations work daily to reduce poverty, expand economic opportunity and create good jobs here in Alabama. Our missions speak directly to the importance of how you and the new Congress act on taxes in the next few months.

The tax code is one of our most powerful tools to shape the economy, but it too often has been used to divide us. For too long, the tax code has been slanted toward the wealthy and large corporations, and the economy, our country, and communities and families across Alabama have suffered as a result. The expiration of key provisions of the TCJA in 2025 is a rare opportunity to unite the vast majority of people who want to correct longstanding inequity in our tax code, and to help produce an economy that works for all Americans.

We urge you and all members of the Alabama delegation to reject renewed or expanded tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our society. And we urge you instead to provide meaningful tax reductions for ordinary families in Alabama and nationwide through an expanded Child Tax Credit and expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.

We appreciate your service and look forward to watching your efforts in the new year.

Signatories

Sincerely,

  1. AIDS Alabama
  2. Alabama Arise
  3. Alabama Black Women’s Roundtable
  4. Alabama Council on Human Relations
  5. Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP)  
  6. Alabama Forward
  7. Alabama Institute for Social Justice
  8. Alabama Justice Initiative
  9. Alabama Poor People’s Campaign
  10. Alabama Rivers Alliance
  11. Alabama State Association of Cooperatives
  12. Alabama State Conference of the NAACP
  13. All Saints Episcopal Church – Mobile
  14. Auburn United Methodist Church
  15. Baptist Church of the Covenant – Birmingham
  16. Bay Area Women Coalition – Mobile
  17. Beloved Community Church (United Church of Christ) – Birmingham
  18. Church Women United – Mobile
  19. Church Women United – Montgomery
  20. Collaborative Solutions, Inc.
  21. Community Enabler – Anniston
  22. East Lake United Methodist Church
  23. Faith in Action Alabama
  24. Fall Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Services
  25. Feeding Alabama
  26. First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) – Montgomery
  27. Five Horizons Health Services
  28. Grace Presbyterian Church – Tuscaloosa
  29. Greater Birmingham Ministries
  30. Interfaith Mission Service – Huntsville
  31. Jobs to Move America
  32. The Knights & Orchids Society
  33. League of Women Voters of Alabama
  34. Low Income Housing Coalition of Alabama
  35. Mary’s House Catholic Worker – Birmingham
  36. National Association of Social Workers – Alabama Chapter
  37. National Lawyers’ Guild – Alabama Chapter
  38. North Alabama Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO
  39. North Alabama Peace Network
  40. Open Table United Church of Christ – Mobile
  41. The People’s Justice Council
  42. The People’s Loan Program
  43. Professional Association of Social Workers in HIV & AIDS
  44. Progressive Women of Northeast Alabama
  45. Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty
  46. St. Paul UMC – Birmingham
  47. Sisters of Mercy in Alabama – Mobile
  48. Stand Up Mobile
  49. Thrive Alabama
  50. Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham
  51. Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Montgomery
  52. United for a Fair Economy
  53. United Women of Color – Huntsville
  54. Valley Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) – Mountain Brook
  55. WAWC Healthcare – Tuscaloosa
  56. Youth Towers – Birmingham

School breakfast for all: What Alabama can do to help feed all of our kids

By Alabama Arise

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst, and LaTrell Clifford Wood, hunger policy advocate | January 2025

Overview

Alabama can and should do more to equip our children and our schools for success. One big step would be to provide school breakfast for all our children. And our lawmakers can make major progress toward that goal this year with a modest allocation from the Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget.

Alabama Arise is recommending an ETF appropriation of $16 million to support public schools, including public charter schools, that wish to provide breakfast to all their students. 

From this amount, each of the 1,459 Alabama schools participating in the National School Lunch Program would be eligible to receive a $5,000 base grant to upgrade their food service capacities.

The remaining $8.7 million could be distributed to eligible schools to bring their breakfast service reimbursements to the maximum possible federal level.

The benefits of school breakfast

Children who start the day with breakfast learn better, participate more in class and are less likely to skip school than are kids who don’t get breakfast. But tight family budgets, busy mornings and before-daylight bus routes can mean many children arrive at school hungry. School districts across the country have found that breakfast for all children, served after the first bell, reduces hunger and helps kids learn.

It’s time for Alabama’s school districts to join their peers nationwide in feeding breakfast to all of our kids. Here are just a few of the benefits:

School breakfast reduces child hunger across our state. In Alabama, 23% of school-age children are food insecure, meaning they do not always have enough to eat or know when they will get their next meal. That rate is even higher among children of color. School breakfast could guarantee a morning meal for all Alabama children during the school day. School breakfast for all kids also allows schools to experiment with food delivery services like grab-and-go kiosks or breakfast in the classroom that increase participation and make sure kids are ready to start the day.

School breakfast reduces chronic absenteeism. Nearly 1 in 5 Alabama children have been chronically absent from school, and 53% of Alabama schools have high absenteeism rates. Research has shown that students who get breakfast at school have improved attendance and decreased tardiness, according to the Food Research and Action Center. 

School breakfast improves standardized testing and math scores. Alabama ranks 48th in average math ACT scores. Academic achievement improves, especially for math, when breakfast is available for school-age children.

School breakfast reduces behavioral problems. Child hunger contributes to impulsivity, hyperactivity, irritability, aggression, anxiety and substance abuse, according to the National Institutes of Health. Reducing hunger would reduce these behaviors.

How Alabama lawmakers can help feed children

The Alabama Legislature can help schools offer school breakfast for all children.  The Legislature can help feed Alabama’s schoolchildren by appropriating ETF dollars to match federal funds for school breakfast. Schools that choose to offer breakfast to all their children can use these matching funds to give all their students breakfast at the start of the school day. Thirty-five other states are considering similar legislation, and eight states have approved some form of school meals for every child.

How is school breakfast funded now? Many schools already provide breakfast for all children, but other schools need state help. Some Alabama schools offer breakfast to income-eligible children under the traditional federal School Breakfast Program, administered by the Alabama State Department of Education. 

Schools with a significant number of low-income children can receive the maximum federal reimbursement for all meals served. But some Alabama schools can’t make the federal reimbursement rate work for them without additional state or local dollars. And some Alabama schools would like to offer breakfast for all their children but don’t want to deal with federal regulations that might impact their Title 1 distribution to local schools.

Bottom line

Providing school breakfast at all public schools would be an important step to improve child nutrition and student success. An ETF budget appropriation of approximately $16 million would allow Alabama schools to be made whole if they can’t receive the maximum federal reimbursement for these meals. This support for school breakfast for all would help children grow, thrive and learn across Alabama.

Las prioridades legislativas de Alabama Arise para 2025

By Alabama Arise

Más de 150 grupos miembros de Alabama Arise y más de 1,500 miembros individuales eligen todos los años nuestras prioridades legislativas. Este proceso garantiza que los habitantes de Alabama más afectados por la pobreza participen de las decisiones. A continuación se enumeran las prioridades que nuestros miembros eligieron para 2025.

Para obtener una versión de este documento en PDF, haga clic aquí o en el botón de “Descargar” (Download) arriba.

Reforma impositiva – Un sistema impositivo más equitativo puede ayudar a la gente con problemas a llegar a fin de mes. Alabama debería quitar el impuesto a los alimentos y asegurar financiación justa y sostenible para servicios esenciales. 

Presupuestos estatales adecuados – Los servicios públicos fuertes amplían las oportunidades para todos. Alabama debe ampliar Medicaid y proteger los fondos para las escuelas públicas. También debe reducir el hambre y las dificultades respaldando el desayuno gratuito universal en las escuelas públicas.

Derecho al voto – Todos merecen su voz en nuestra democracia. Alabama debe aprobar el voto temprano sin excusas y eliminar barreras para la restauración del derecho al voto para quienes no lo tienen. 

Reforma de justicia penal – Nuestro sistema de justicia debe asegurar la justicia y la equidad para todos. Alabama debe mejorar el sistema de libertad condicional, reformar las leyes de sentencias punitivas y reducir la dependencia de multas y tarifas como fuente de ingresos. 

Atención médica maternoinfantil – La salud y seguridad de las familias es de suma importancia. Alabama debe mejorar el acceso a atención médica de alta calidad, asegurar que no se criminalice la atención vital durante el embarazo y extender la licencia prenatal para empleados y maestros en el estado.

Transporte público – La conexión comunitaria es esencial. Alabama debe financiar el Fondo Fiduciario de Transporte Público para que todos puedan llegar al trabajo, la escuela, la atención médica y más.

Reforma de pena de muerte – Todos en Alabama merecen la misma justicia según la ley. Un paso clave en esta dirección sería aplicar la prohibición de Alabama de anulación judicial de veredictos de jurado de manera retroactiva, para aplicarla a personas sentenciadas bajo esta política, ahora ilegal.

The federal policy fights and opportunities ahead for Alabama Arise

By Carol Gundlach

Alabama Arise and our members have worked for more than 35 years to push for policies that improve the lives of people struggling to make ends meet. We have remained steadfast in this mission and our values, and we will continue that commitment in the coming years.

Arise is deeply concerned about the prospect of harmful federal tax and budget changes next year. And we are working closely with national allies and those in other states to educate and advocate on these issues. We’ll be calling on you, our members and partners, to help us protect Alabamians with low incomes. We will be responding to numerous federal issues in 2025. These include:

Tax cuts for the wealthiest households

Federal tax cuts passed in 2017 benefited wealthy people and highly profitable corporations at the expense of revenue for essential services like public education and health care. We expect Congress to move quickly to try to renew these skewed tax giveaways to the wealthiest households and corporations. We also are concerned that targeted tax credits for people with low incomes, including the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, might be cut to offset the cost of tax cuts for wealthy households.

Federal funding cuts for human services

Arise and our partners expect Congress will try to freeze or reduce spending on services that help working people, in an effort to offset the cost of tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans. Services at risk could include education services for struggling students, affordable housing and public transportation. Congress also could reduce state grants under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides income and work supports for people with extremely low incomes.

We also expect to see proposals to cut food aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and health coverage under Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (known as ALL Kids in Alabama) and the Affordable Care Act. We are particularly worried about the possibility of state block grants or privatization of health care programs.

A bearded Black man wearing a black suit jacket, white dress shirt and yellow tie speaks behind a lectern. Alabama Arise supporters stand behind and to either side of him.
Alabama Arise board president Clyde Jones emphasizes the health and economic benefits of Medicaid expansion during Arise Legislative Day on April 2, 2024, in Montgomery. Arise will oppose any efforts to slash Medicaid funding or impose harmful structural changes to Medicaid. (Photo by Julie Bennett)

Arise expects to fight against harmful new work reporting requirements for participants in Medicaid, SNAP, affordable housing and similar programs. These would result in many costly paperwork barriers and arbitrary denials for people eligible for these services.

Attacks on undocumented immigrants

Efforts to deport large numbers of undocumented immigrants likely would disproportionately hurt Hispanic communities and result in human rights abuses. These initiatives also likely would drive up the price of goods and services for everyone. The first Trump administration tried to make it easier to deport people who participated in programs like Medicaid or SNAP. We anticipate another effort to impose a similar “public charge” rule.

Harmful long-term structural changes

Further down the road, we are watching for potential harmful changes to SSI disability cash assistance. We also are concerned about potential proposals to privatize Social Security and to slash Medicaid and SNAP by turning them into block-grant programs or significantly cutting federal funding.

What we can do together

The federal road ahead will not be easy for Alabamians with low incomes. But we have survived serious policy threats before, and we can again, as long as we all work together. It is important to remember a few key strengths that we have:

  • Congress is deeply divided, especially in the House. Some things that require congressional action may be hard to pass.
  • Federal administrative rule changes are a slow and tedious process. Public comments can play a major role in slowing or stopping harmful regulations.
  • Equitable tax policy and adequate budgets for human services are broadly popular. Public opinion matters and can make a real difference.

Arise pledges to help our members stay informed with fact sheets, blog posts and other informative materials. We will share timely action alerts to help our supporters speak out to elected officials on issues that matter to working families. And we will support immigrants, people of color, low-income communities and other Alabamians who are at risk of policy harm.

We are stronger together. Arise’s coalition has a decades-long track record of credibility and success. And with your ongoing advocacy and support, we will continue advancing our shared vision of a better Alabama for all.

Alabama voted. Now let’s organize for a better state

By Robyn Hyden

The State Capitol in Montgomery.

Alabama Arise and our members have worked for more than 35 years to push for state policies that improve the lives of people struggling to make ends meet. We advocate for policies to build an Alabama where everyone has the resources they need to reach their full potential. And we’ve always remained steadfast in this mission and our values, regardless of who holds public offices at any given time.

On Tuesday, Alabama voted. So today, we have a clearer vision of what we may face as we look toward the 2025 legislative session in February. The path to dignity, equity and justice for all has always been a long one in Alabama. None of us are strangers to this work, and we’re in it for the long haul.

To make positive change, we must work together. We all must lean into our relationships, communities and networks to find solidarity and grow our collective voice for change. As a member-based organization, we know power is built from the ground up. And Arise will continue our commitment to growing our people power to expand health care access, reduce hunger, reform Alabama’s upside-down tax structure and support working people across our state.

We’re glad you’re with us. Join or support our movement for a better Alabama for all today.