Legislative Update: Alabama Senate Focused on Economic Growth for All
As many of you are aware, the Birmingham City Council recently passed a disastrous ordinance establishing a minimum wage of $10.10. This was a catastrophic blow for businesses and workers in the Birmingham area. If you don’t agree, keep reading. So I am pleased to report that last week, the State Senate gave final passage […]
By Slade Blackwell
Broadband Internet Competition Is Positive for Alabama
For Alabama’s economy to flourish in the twenty-first century, it is essential that all Alabama families, schools, and businesses have access to high-speed Internet. And the best route to provide the best product always involves competition. If a fifth grader in a rural Alabama county can only access the Internet via a dial-up connection, […]
By Tom Whatley
Alabama’s Medicaid Reform Is a Model for the Nation
The state of Alabama faces a huge fiscal challenge. In 2010, Medicaid cost the state $314 million. By 2015, Medicaid’s costs had spiked to $685 million, consuming 37% of Alabama’s General Fund budget (which funds all non-education state spending), and would burden the state even more if the federal government didn’t pick up the tab […]
By Greg Reed
Zero-Based Budgeting Will Help Eliminate Government Waste
Every dollar that funds government comes from the pocket of a taxpayer. This is a basic truth that politicians sometimes forget. At the national level, you have socialists like Bernie Sanders arguing the government should provide “free” health care, “free” college tuition, and basically a life “free” from all worries. The problem is, as […]
By Larry Stutts
Time to Lend the Poor a Hand by Shining a Light on Lawsuit Lending
For decades, Alabama was known as “tort hell.” The legal environment was tilted toward plaintiffs and businesses were taking it hard on the chin. This made some trial lawyers very wealthy, but it cost Alabama untold thousands of jobs as businesses and doctors went elsewhere. During the 1990s, voters flipped the appellate and Supreme […]
By Cam Ward
We Must Reform State Pensions To Save Them
I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Maybe you are looking for a “fun” topic to discuss with your family over the Christmas holidays, so let me fill you in on state employee pensions. The State of Alabama must make smart reforms to public employee pensions to both save taxpayer dollars and […]
By Larry Stutts
Thanksgiving in America
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. Our family gathers to eat turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing, pecan pie, and catch up on each other’s lives (and of course, watch a little football). Time slows down briefly at Thanksgiving, as the people I love most surround me. Probably sounds familiar to your family […]
By Larry Stutts
Gratitude, Happiness, and America’s Founding
Thanksgiving is a great time for catching up with family members, watching football, and eating turkey, dressing, and pumpkin and pecan pies. The food is so good, you might even excuse your Uncle Jim’s fifth monologue on why Verne and Gary are the worst sportscasters since the dawn of television, as your family prepares […]
By Greg Reed
Veterans Are Essential Leaders for Alabama
If something makes you look up, look down. If something makes you look down, look up. I was introduced to this little jingle during a patrol class at Jungle Warfare Training in Okinawa, Japan in 1988. “The Gunny”, our Chief Instructor, was a seasoned Marine Gunnery Sergeant who learned this jingle the hard way in […]
By Bill Holtzclaw
This Veterans Day, Don’t Take Our Country, Or Those Who Protect It, For Granted
I carry a simple photograph in my wallet. The picture was taken in early 2004 and at first glance it is not a remarkable image. But the story behind it is profound. The image is of a group of men sitting around a conference table deliberating the mundane items of local governance. Those men were […]