Expanding Medicaid and ending the state sales tax on groceries will remain top goals on Alabama Arise’s 2025 legislative agenda. The organization also will advocate for state funds to help public schools provide free breakfast to every student.

More than 450 members voted in the last week to affirm Arise’s legislative priorities. The seven priorities chosen were:

• Adequate budgets for human services, including expanding Medicaid to make health coverage affordable for all Alabamians, supporting universal free breakfast in public schools and ensuring equitable public education funding for all students.
• Tax reform to build a more just and sustainable revenue system, including eliminating the rest of Alabama’s state sales tax on groceries and replacing the revenue equitably.
• Voting rights, including no-excuse early voting, removal of barriers to voting rights restoration for disenfranchised Alabamians, and other policies to protect and expand multiracial democracy.
• Criminal justice reform, including legislation to improve Alabama’s parole system and efforts to reduce overreliance on exorbitant fines and fees as a revenue source.
• Maternal and infant health investments to advance the health and safety of Alabama families, including legislation to ensure paid parental leave for state employees and teachers.
• Public transportation to empower Alabamians with low incomes to stay connected to work, school, health care and their communities.
• Death penalty reform, including a law to apply Alabama’s ban on judicial overrides of jury sentencing verdicts retroactively to people sentenced to death row under this now-illegal policy.

“Alabama Arise believes in dignity, equity and justice for everyone,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “Our 2025 legislative priorities would empower Alabamians of every race, income and background to reach their full potential. And they reflect our members’ commitment to building a healthier, more just and more inclusive Alabama for all.”

Alabama urgently needs to close the health coverage gap

An essential step toward a healthier future for Alabama is to ensure everyone can afford the health care they need. Arise members believe Medicaid expansion is a policy path to that destination, and research provides strong support for that position.

Expanding Medicaid to cover adults with low incomes would reduce racial health disparities and remove financial barriers to health care for nearly 200,000 Alabamians. It would support thousands of new jobs across the state. And most importantly, it would save hundreds of lives every year.

The need to close Alabama’s coverage gap is growing by the day. Thomasville Regional Medical Center in Clarke County last month became the state’s most recent rural hospital to close. About two dozen other rural hospitals in Alabama are at immediate risk of closure, and four labor and delivery units have shut down in the last year. These closures have reduced care options in a state that already has one of the nation’s worst maternal mortality rates.

Alabama is one of only 10 states yet to expand Medicaid. Medicaid expansion would ensure health coverage for nearly 200,000 Alabamians caught in a coverage gap. Most of these residents earn too much to qualify for the state’s bare-bones Medicaid program but too little to afford private plans.

“Medicaid expansion would boost our economy, protect rural hospitals and improve life for people across Alabama,” Hyden said. “Closing the coverage gap also would improve access to mental health treatment and life-saving health care for mothers and babies. Our policymakers need to step up and to make this life-saving and job-creating investment in the people of our state.”

Universal school breakfast would help Alabama children learn and thrive

Another key step toward a healthier Alabama is to ensure every public school can offer free breakfast to every student. Hundreds of Alabama schools are providing free meals to all of their students through the Community Eligibility Provision, but some schools cannot participate in the program.

Arise will advocate for a state appropriation that local districts can use to match federal funds to offer free breakfasts. This funding would position Alabama to build on the success of Summer EBT, which will provide $40 in food benefits per summer month for more than 500,000 children starting in 2025. Legislators approved the necessary administrative funding for Summer EBT this year after determined advocacy by Arise members and partners.

Children and communities across Alabama would enjoy both immediate and long-term benefits from universal free breakfast in public schools. Universal school breakfast would reduce child hunger in a state where nearly 1 in 4 children face food insecurity. Extending the reach of school breakfast programs would help reduce behavioral problems and improve attendance and test scores. Reducing food insecurity for children also can help improve their mental health and overall health as teenagers and adults.

“It’s hard for children to focus in school when they’re hungry,” Hyden said. “Lawmakers can help ensure that every student across Alabama can start the day with a good meal and be ready to succeed both in the classroom and throughout their lives.”

Finish the job: Alabama needs to remove the rest of the state grocery tax

Arise members also renewed their decades-long commitment to another policy to reduce hunger: ending Alabama’s state grocery tax. That advocacy got results last year when legislators reduced the state sales tax on groceries by half. The law reduced the tax from 4 cents to 3 cents in 2023, but another 1-cent reduction did not happen this year because education revenues grew by less than 3.5%. That reduction will occur in the next year when revenues increase by that amount.

Ending the state grocery tax remains a core Arise priority because the tax makes it harder for people with low incomes to make ends meet. The tax adds hundreds of dollars a year to the cost of a basic necessity for families. And most states have abandoned it: Alabama is one of only 12 states that still tax groceries.

Lawmakers have options to remove the other half of the state grocery tax while protecting funding for public schools. Arise will continue to support legislation to untax groceries and replace the revenue by capping or eliminating the state income tax deduction for federal income taxes. This deduction is a tax break that overwhelmingly benefits the richest households. Arise also will support efforts to give local governments increased flexibility to decrease local grocery taxes if they determine it is feasible.

“Reducing the state grocery tax was an important step toward repairing Alabama’s upside-down tax system,” Hyden said. “By untaxing groceries and limiting the federal income tax deduction, legislators can help families keep food on the table while protecting funding for our children’s public schools. Alabama lawmakers should embrace this path to end the state grocery tax forever.”