All Resources
Blog
The CFPB should keep protections for payday borrowers
Borrowers across the country deserve stronger protections, not weaker ones. Unfortunately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently decided to reopen its 2017 rulemaking on payday lending. And that move would put the financial health of hundreds of thousands of people at risk. The CFPB director seeks to eliminate a requirement for payday lenders to [...]
Fact Sheet
30 days to pay: A simple but important step forward on payday lending reform in Alabama
Alabama borrowers pay interest rates of 456 percent a year on payday loans. These high-cost loans trap thousands of struggling Alabamians in a debt cycle that deepens poverty and hurts the state’s economy. SB 75, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, along with a House version sponsored by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, would extend the [...]
Blog
What we’re watching during the 2019 special session
This week brought a first in recent memory at the Alabama Legislature: a session within a session. The regular session began Tuesday, but lawmakers have put it on hold until March 19 to make way for a special session on the state gas tax. At Gov. Kay Ivey’s call, legislators will consider a proposed 10-cent [...]
News Releases
Alabama’s K-12 funding still far lower than a decade ago, despite recent gains
Alabama increased state education funding in 2018, but the legacy of years of extreme cuts remains, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C. Alabama increased its K-12 formula funding by 1 percent per student last year. But that funding is [...]
Fact Sheet
Medicaid expansion by the numbers
± 223,000 Alabamians are caught in the coverage gap, unable to afford health insurance. Another 120,000 or more are stretching to pay for private or employer-based coverage. 13 Alabama hospitals – including 7 rural ones – have closed since 2011. 88 percent of Alabama’s rural hospitals operate in the red. If we expand Medicaid to [...]
Blog
How to advance our vision for Alabama’s next century
What kind of future do we want for Alabama? It’s a question worth reflecting on as our state enters its third century this year. Are we all right with limiting power and prosperity to a select few? Or would we rather build a state where everyone has a voice and where people of all races, [...]
Newsletter
March 2019 newsletter
Lead article How to advance our vision for Alabama's next century By Chris Sanders, communications director What kind of future do we want for Alabama? It’s a question worth reflecting on as our state enters its third century this year. Are we all right with limiting power and prosperity to a select few? Or would [...]
Blog
Court rulings aid push for reforms of civil asset forfeiture, death penalty
The U.S. Supreme Court sent clear signals in February that the time is ripe for reform on two of Arise’s 2019 issue priorities. In Timbs v. Indiana, the court unanimously blocked Indiana’s attempt to use civil asset forfeiture to take a car that was worth much more than the maximum fine for the crime for [...]
Fact Sheet
How the state grocery tax hurts struggling Alabamians
No matter how much or how little money we have, we all have to eat to live. But the share of earnings that people must devote to securing basic survival is not the same for everyone. Food takes a much bigger bite out of the household budget for low-income families than for richer ones. And [...]
News Releases
Better policy choices on taxes, transit can improve Alabamians’ health
Deeper and smarter investments in education, housing, infrastructure and other vital services can eliminate barriers to good health for low-income residents and communities of color, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan policy research organization based in Washington, D.C. Alabama can take many important policy steps [...]