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News Releases
New poll: Alabamians strongly support use of ARPA funds to protect rural hospitals, increase mental health services
Alabama’s likely voters overwhelmingly support using federal COVID-19 relief funds to increase funding for mental health and rural hospitals, according to a new Alabama Arise poll released Monday. More than four in five respondents (81.1%) supported using a portion of Alabama’s funding under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to invest in rural hospitals and [...]
Letters & Testimony
Alabama Arise testimony on ARPA funding priorities in Alabama
Alabama Arise’s Robyn Hyden testified Wednesday before a joint meeting of the House and Senate’s General Fund budget committees. She discussed Arise’s top priorities for lawmakers’ allocation of federal relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act. Here’s the full text of Hyden’s prepared remarks: Good afternoon. My name is Robyn Hyden. I am the [...]
Blog
Arise legislative recap: Jan. 18, 2022
The Alabama Legislature is back in session, and Alabama Arise will keep a close eye on policy developments in the coming months. Arise's Carol Gundlach previews the state budgets and discusses the rare opportunity our lawmakers have to create a more equitable Alabama using federal relief funds.
Blog
Six ways Alabama should use ARPA funds to build a better, more inclusive future
The Alabama Legislature’s 2022 regular session, which began Tuesday, will be unusual in one important way. For the first time in many years, Alabama has more than enough revenue to maintain its bare-bones public services. That means instead of scrambling to avoid cuts, the legislative focus can be on strengthening investments in our state’s future. [...]
Blog
LIVE BLOG: Alabama’s 2022 legislative session
Stay up to date with the 2022 legislative session. Below is a live feed of Alabama Arise's Twitter account, which will display information related to our 2022 issue priorities as well the latest news from our staff and members of the media. Tweets by AlabamaArise
Fact Sheet
Underregulated auto title loans are a bad deal for Alabamians
Alabama doesn’t know how many people lose their cars because of auto title loans every year. No agency collects data on title loans, which are treated as pawn transactions. But with annual percentage rates (APR) of 300% allowable under the state’s Pawn Shop Act, which governs title loans, the cost of these loans is far [...]
Fact Sheet
Payday lending harms families and communities across Alabama
Every year, underregulated payday lenders drain tens of millions of dollars from Alabama communities. These financial predators use some of that money to pay a fleet of lobbyists and fund legislative campaigns against reform. They have preserved the status quo even though nearly three in four Alabamians support abolishing predatory payday loans. There are more [...]
Fact Sheet
Criminal justice debt creates major barriers to economic health
It is unconstitutional to jail someone just because they owe money. But Alabama has no set process for courts to determine if a defendant can afford to pay fines and fees. And though debtors’ prisons are illegal, thousands of Alabamians are in danger of going to jail or are driven further into poverty because they [...]
Fact Sheet
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 [...]
Fact Sheet
Expand voting rights to move Alabama beyond its anti-democratic past
Voting rights are a flashpoint in Alabama’s history. The long denial of those rights to Black residents led to Bloody Sunday in Selma, the march to Montgomery and eventually passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In the decades since, our state has taken a few steps that increase voting access for communities of [...]