Reports
Report
Alabama’s public transportation system needs a tune-up
Alabama's transportation system forces residents to rely too much on automobiles and undermines the state's economic growth, according to "Connecting Our Citizens for Prosperity," an October 2014 report released by Alabama State University's Center for Leadership and Public Policy. Jon Broadway, Ph.D., and ACPP policy analyst Stephen Stetson are the report's authors. Alabama is one of only five states [...]
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The State of Working Alabama 2014: The growing divide: Alabama’s income gap is approaching Gilded Age levels
When the income gap between the rich and everyone else gets too large, the resulting inequality can threaten America’s foundations of fairness, equality and opportunity. Income inequality is deep in Alabama, and it has been getting even deeper in recent decades. Between 1979 and 2007, the top 1 percent of Alabamians saw their incomes grow by [...]
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The State of Working Alabama 2014: On Labor Day, Alabama workers face high unemployment
Many Alabama workers may find little reason to celebrate as we approach this Labor Day. The Great Recession is officially over, but the average Alabama worker has not yet recovered from it, as employment and jobs continue to lag behind and wages remain stagnant. Policy analyst Carol Gundlach's new report, part of ACPP's State of Working Alabama [...]
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Earthquake on Goat Hill: How the Alabama Accountability Act passed and what it means
Alabama would provide income tax credits to help subsidize private or religious school tuition for parents of children zoned for "failing schools" beginning this fall if Gov. Robert Bentley signs the plan into law. The House and Senate approved the measure, known as the Alabama Accountability Act, mere hours after it was first introduced on Feb. [...]
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The State of Working Alabama 2011
Well after the nation's official recovery from the Great Recession began, Alabama continued to feel the downturn's lingering effects in 2010: lower median household incomes, more poverty and more residents without health insurance. Unemployment has fallen from its 2009 peak, but the state's jobless rate remains above the national average. Higher poverty, fueled by lower incomes [...]
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The State of Working Alabama 2010
Like this summer's BP oil disaster, the Great Recession started for many Alabamians as something far away and impersonal. Then the disaster hit Alabama, and it hit hard. The resulting devastation was far-reaching, with scars that could last for decades even as things begin to return to normal.
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The State of Working Alabama 2009
The economic recession took longer to crash the party in Alabama than in many other states. But once it did arrive in late 2008, it made its presence known swiftly and severely. Alabama once boasted a far lower unemployment rate than the national average. Now it has one of the highest. Despite a decade of solid [...]
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The State of Working Alabama 2008
What if this is as good as it gets? That's a question many Alabama workers may ask themselves in the near future as this year's national economic slump continues. The state's economy has been healthy in a number of areas since the business cycle last peaked in 2001. The unemployment level is below the national and [...]
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Locked Out: Low wages and affordable housing in Alabama
This 2008 report examines the shortage of appropriate, adequate and affordable housing in Alabama.
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Bridging the Gap
From the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf Coast, Alabamians share a strong work ethic and a deep commitment to individual responsibility. They go to work each day, pay their taxes, participate in the lives of their communities, and nurture their children. But for many, the promise that hard work will provide a good living for them [...]