Budgets Archives - Page 10 of 21

Arise advances justice in a pandemic session

By Chris SandersJune 8, 2021July 8, 2021

Advocacy barriers for Alabama Arise members were extraordinarily high during the Legislature’s 2021 regular session. The COVID-19 pandemic limited physical access to the State House and made a difficult policy landscape even rockier.

But Arise members were undeterred. They spoke out forcefully and repeatedly for justice and opportunity. And the result was real, meaningful progress on multiple issue priorities.

This year brought advances on criminal justice reform and internet access. It delivered stronger investment in early education and preserved funding for Medicaid and mental health care. And it saw efforts to chill free speech and erode the Department of Public Health’s effectiveness defeated.

Wins on expanding broadband, reforming civil asset forfeiture

Arise members made their presence known throughout the session. They gathered monthly for online Membership Monday events to stay engaged and connect with advocates across Alabama. On May 18, nearly 100 people attended a virtual recap event to debrief the session and prepare for next steps. And throughout the year, our supporters flooded email inboxes and rang phones off the hook, contacting legislators and Gov. Kay Ivey more than 14,000 times.

That advocacy worked. Lawmakers passed SB 215 by Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, to promote broadband expansion to rural communities and other underserved areas. And legislators finally began to rein in civil asset forfeiture, a practice that allows law enforcement to seize property without a criminal conviction.

SB 210 by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, doesn’t end civil asset forfeiture, but it makes some important initial improvements. Those changes include exempting some property from forfeiture and strengthening protections for innocent owners.

Successful defense against public health threats, anti-protest bill

Arise advocacy helped stop harmful proposals as well. Our members played a key role in blocking a plan to limit the governor and public health officials’ ability to respond to emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. After our members sounded the alarm, SB 97 by Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, lost a House procedural vote in the session’s final hours.

Arise members also helped halt a threat to free speech. HB 445 by Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, would have expanded law enforcement’s powers to arrest protesters for “rioting” and imposed harsh mandatory minimum sentences on people convicted under the law. The bill passed in the House but died in the Senate.

The Legislature likely isn’t done this year. Lawmakers expect one or more special sessions to address unfinished business like redistricting, prison overcrowding and allocating federal relief funds. Whenever the next session may be, Arise members will be ready, advocating as always for a better, more inclusive Alabama.

Arise legislative recap: May 10, 2021

By Alabama AriseMay 10, 2021February 1, 2024

Arise’s Carol Gundlach breaks down the busy final stretch of the Alabama Legislature’s 2021 regular session. Carol reviews where things stand on the General Fund budget and broadband access. And she flags two potential action alerts we want you to be ready for in the coming week.

Alabama Arise Action 2021 annual meeting

By Alabama AriseApril 26, 2021

The Arise policy and campaign teams gave updates on criminal justice reform, voting rights, Medicaid expansion and other issue priorities during Alabama Arise Action’s annual meeting last week. Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, also called in to provide insight from the legislative side of the 2021 regular session.

(Note: The video captions were generated live during the meeting and include some typos. We apologize for any resulting confusion or inconvenience.)

Money matters: Budgets top priority for session; lawmakers also discussing Medicaid expansion, criminal justice reform, voting rights this year

By Jim CarnesApril 14, 2021April 14, 2021

As the Alabama Legislature approaches the 2021 regular session’s final days, both state budgets are halfway to passage. The Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget has passed in the Senate and is in the House’s education budget committee. The General Fund (GF) budget, which funds all non-education services, has cleared the House and awaits Senate committee approval. Despite the COVID-19 recession, both budgets eked out small increases – 3% in the GF and 6% in the ETF. This will allow pay raises for teachers and state employees. It also will fund one-time additional 2022 teacher units and a new salary matrix for certified math and science teachers.

While budgets progressed, the Senate divided over whether to pass a gambling bill that would increase revenue for one or both. After Sen. Del Marsh’s lottery and gaming bill failed March 9, Sens. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, and Jim McClendon, R-Springville, introduced lottery bills. Meanwhile, Marsh, R-Anniston, introduced both a new lottery and a new gaming bill.

The Senate may consider some combination of these measures later this session. If approved by legislators and voters, expansion of gambling could increase state revenues anywhere from $118 million to $550 million. (Arise takes no position for or against gambling legislation.)

Health care

A big change on the health care front this year is the prominent role of Medicaid expansion in legislative discussions, both on and off the chamber floors. Gov. Kay Ivey can propose expansion through administrative steps, but lawmakers still control the purse strings. So legislative advocacy is essential!

As the pandemic highlights the need for rigorous health data, Alabama had been one of only two states lacking a statewide hospital discharge database. Now we’ll be shedding that dubious distinction with the enactment of HB 210 by Rep. Paul Lee, R-Dothan, a bill that Arise supported.

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) has been the target of several proposals to increase political control over the agency’s leadership and decision-making. McClendon’s SB 240, for example, would abolish the State Board of Health, the medical body that appoints the state health officer, and make ADPH’s director a gubernatorial appointment. Other bills would limit state and county health officials’ authority to declare health emergencies. One such measure, SB 97 by Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, passed the Senate in early April.

Criminal justice reform

Several criminal justice improvements have moved forward this year. These include partial reform of sentencing under the Habitual Felony Offender Act (HFOA) and expanded alternatives to imprisonment. Bigger reforms like HFOA repeal and abolition of driver’s license suspension have been slowed due to opposition, though. That inaction has persisted even in the face of a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over unconstitutional prison conditions.

Voting rights

Efforts to protect and expand voting rights continue to face an uphill battle. Bills prohibiting curbside voting have advanced, despite the practice’s success in Mississippi and other states. Meanwhile, a bill allowing no-cause absentee voting stalled, as did measures on early voting and same-day voter registration. Legislation improving voting rights restoration did advance, but only after removal of a provision that would have ended a de facto poll tax: the requirement for people with convictions to pay all fines and fees before regaining voting rights.

American Rescue Plan Act offers path to recovery

By Chris SandersApril 13, 2021April 13, 2021

As vaccinations continue across Alabama, COVID-19’s viselike grip on our lives is loosening. The pandemic has caused immense physical, emotional and economic suffering, and those aftereffects will not fade quickly. But the American Rescue Plan Act – the federal relief package that President Joe Biden signed March 11 – includes many important policies to begin the healing.

Some of the most crucial investments come in health care. The law increases subsidies for marketplace health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. It also creates new incentives that would more than offset the cost of Medicaid expansion. The incentives would remove Alabama’s last financial barrier to extending coverage to more than 340,000 adults with low incomes.

If Gov. Kay Ivey agrees to expand Medicaid, Alabama would receive between $740 million and $940 million over two years. That would result from a 5-percentage-point federal funding increase for traditional Medicaid coverage.

Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery

“Medicaid expansion is the single biggest step Alabama can take to recover from the pandemic,” Alabama Arise campaign director Jane Adams said.

“Congress did their job. Now it’s time for the governor and state lawmakers to do theirs.”

The act also slashes poverty by boosting unemployment insurance and nutrition assistance benefits and expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. It funds rental and mortgage assistance to help prevent evictions and foreclosures. And it provides Alabama’s state and local governments with $4 billion of federal assistance to help avoid cuts to education and other vital services.

Persistent disparities – and how to end them

The relief package provides opportunities to begin dismantling longtime structural barriers in Alabama. Arise offers many such policy recommendations in our recent report, The State of Working Alabama 2021, which details how COVID-19 cost hundreds of thousands of Alabamians their jobs and fueled a rapid surge of hunger and hardship across our state.

COVID-19’s toll has been especially heavy for women and people of color, the report finds. The pandemic exacerbated Alabama’s preexisting racial, gender and regional disparities in health care, housing, nutrition and economic opportunity. These inequities – the legacy of bad policy decisions – prevent Alabama from reaching its full potential.

“Alabama’s economic, racial and gender inequities are preventable and reversible,” Arise policy director Jim Carnes said. “By making better policy choices now and in the future, we can chart a path toward a more equitable economy.”

New Medicaid expansion incentive clears the path to a healthier Alabama

By Jim CarnesMarch 19, 2021April 8, 2021

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 answers a question Alabama policymakers have been asking for years: How can we pay for Medicaid expansion? It’s a solution that lawmakers should embrace immediately to build a better, healthier future for our state. And it’s a step you can urge the governor to take today.

An incentive in the new federal COVID-19 relief package means Medicaid expansion in Alabama effectively would pay for itself. Medicaid expansion would bring peace of mind to more than 340,000 adults with low incomes who are uninsured or struggling to afford health coverage. It also would save lives, create jobs and help protect rural hospitals across our state.

If Alabama agrees to expansion, the law will reduce the state’s costs to provide Medicaid coverage for the much larger non-expansion population for two years. This offer would add 5 percentage points of federal funding to the generous match Alabama already receives for Medicaid expenditures.

The enhanced federal match would create more than enough General Fund (GF) “breathing room” to cover the state’s 10% share of Medicaid expansion costs for the first two years, which are the most expensive. Since 2014, Alabama taxpayers have paid $4 billion in federal taxes to help support Medicaid expansion in other states. This new provision is an unprecedented opportunity to bring some of those tax dollars home to cover Alabamians.

How the new federal Medicaid incentives work

Alabama’s “regular” Medicaid match rate (known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP) adjusts slightly from year to year. It will be 72.37% for 2022. And the state already is receiving an additional 6.2-percentage-point boost until the COVID-19 public health emergency ends. That brings the overall federal share to 78.57%.

With the additional 5 percentage points, Alabama’s federal match to cover current Medicaid enrollees would increase to 83.57% until the emergency ends. (It would revert to 77.37% for the remainder of the two-year incentive period after the emergency.) An even higher federal match of 90% will apply permanently to coverage for people newly eligible under Medicaid expansion.

Estimates of the value of Alabama’s incentive over the two years range from $740 million (Kaiser Family Foundation) to $940 million (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities). Even at the lower end, the increase would free up far more than the state’s estimated net share of the first year of Medicaid expansion ($168 million).

Research findings from UAB – and other states’ experiences – suggest Alabama’s net costs will drop dramatically after Year 1. (A UAB study projects the state’s net cost for expansion will be around $25 million a year in Alabama.) That’s because the increased federal funding would produce new tax revenues and offset previous state spending on newly covered services.

Alabama is one of 14 states eligible for the new incentive. They include two states – Missouri and Oklahoma – that have passed expansion by referendum but haven’t implemented it yet. They also include the 11 other states, mostly in the South, that have not yet moved to expand Medicaid. Those states are Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Why the time for Alabama to expand Medicaid is right now

Timing is a critical factor. While the two-year incentive offer remains available for 10 years, current conditions are especially favorable for Medicaid expansion in Alabama. Medicaid will enter the 2022 budget year with a $252 million “carryforward” from this year.

That surplus likely will allow lawmakers to reduce Medicaid’s GF appropriation next year and keep some funds in reserve. The 2022 GF budget that legislators are considering also was written before the new 5-percentage-point boost became available. So the difference truly would be a windfall.

Alabama can’t use federal funds to match federal funds. But hundreds of millions of dollars of additional, unanticipated federal money would relieve pressure on state budgets. And that would free up enough state funds to pay for Alabama’s share of Medicaid expansion for many years.

The Medicaid expansion incentive is a part of federal COVID-19 relief funding for a reason. The pandemic has tested our health care system to its limits. Besides killing more Alabamians than all modern wars combined, the crisis has revealed deep gaps in care and coverage that leave hundreds of thousands of Alabamians extra vulnerable to the virus and unable to pay for the care they need. A “lost year” has left local communities, businesses and families reeling.

The single biggest step our leaders can take to bridge Alabama’s health care gap and accelerate our economic recovery is to expand Medicaid. The new federal incentive removes the last hurdle in our way. It’s time to expand Medicaid now.

You can speak up now for this investment in a healthier future for Alabama. Click here to email Gov. Kay Ivey and urge her to save lives and create jobs by expanding Medicaid.

Arise legislative recap: March 12, 2021

By Alabama AriseMarch 12, 2021March 19, 2021

Arise’s Carol Gundlach breaks down the American Rescue Plan and what it means for Alabama families including expansions to the Child Tax Credit and EITC helping to reduce poverty across Alabama.

Now is the time! Medicaid expansion talking points in Alabama

By Chris SandersMarch 12, 2021September 15, 2021

Timing

On Thursday, March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act, which will bring back federal funding for states to newly expand Medicaid. Thanks to this law, if Alabama expanded Medicaid, the state would get an estimated $940 million boost in federal Medicaid funds over two years. This is enough money to fully fund Alabama’s share of the cost of Medicaid expansion for many years.

Messaging on cost

For years, Gov. Kay Ivey and legislative leaders have said the barrier to expanding Medicaid is the cost. Thanks to the enhanced federal funding, Alabama will have the money to cover the cost of expansion. Now more than ever before, we have the chance to ensure that no Alabamian has to choose between going to the doctor and putting food on the table.

Medicaid expansion is popular

A January 2021 poll from the Cygnal polling firm showed that nearly 70% of Alabamians support Medicaid expansion, including 64% of Republican voters. The poll also revealed that Alabamians support using a portion of funds from any gambling or medical marijuana legalization to expand Medicaid.

Medicaid is necessary for COVID-19 recovery

Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic will require Alabama to reinvigorate our public health system. Medicaid is a health lifeline for one in four Alabamians and an economic engine for communities across our state. As we struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, extending Medicaid coverage to adults with low incomes is the single biggest step Alabama can take to restore health, save our rural hospitals and boost economic recovery.

The vast majority who would gain coverage are working

More than 100,000 Alabamians in the coverage gap hold regular jobs that pay low wages. Thousands more are self-employed, serve as caregivers or attend school. Medicaid expansion has proved to incentivize work and create jobs.

Medicaid expansion would ensure coverage for 300,000 Alabamians, including:

People who work low-wage jobs and can’t afford private coverage
Workers who are between jobs
Adults who are caring for children or older family members at home
People who have disabilities and are awaiting SSI determinations
Adult college students
Uninsured veterans

Medicaid expansion would help more Alabamians have:

Regular primary care and preventive checkups
Earlier detection and treatment of serious health problems
Regular OB/GYN visits without referral
Less dependence on costly emergency care
Better health and greater financial peace of mind

Medicaid expansion would promote racial equity by:

Reducing racial disparities in coverage, which is more likely to leave out people of color with low incomes
Lowering the high rate of African American infant deaths
Lowering the high rate of African American maternal deaths
Covering chronic health conditions that disproportionately affect African Americans, making them more vulnerable to COVID-19 complications

Medicaid expansion would bring our federal tax dollars home to support:

Healthier families, workers and communities
Stronger rural hospitals and clinics
Stronger community mental health and substance use disorder services
A needed boost in jobs and revenue for state and local economies

Bottom line

Medicaid expansion is the single biggest step we can take to weather the pandemic and move Alabama forward. It’s time to invest in a healthier future for our state and our people.

Federal relief package will reduce Alabamians’ unmet health needs, hunger, housing instability and other hardships

By Chris SandersMarch 11, 2021March 19, 2021

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 will reduce poverty while expanding health care, housing and nutrition protections across Alabama, according to analyses by Alabama Arise and other research organizations. President Joe Biden signed the new federal COVID-19 relief package into law Thursday.

The law will slash poverty by expanding tax credits to struggling households and boosting unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. It also will provide Alabama $2.3 billion of federal assistance to help avoid cuts to education and other vital services. Local governments in Alabama will receive another $1.7 billion in federal funding.

Some of the relief package’s most transformative investments will come in health care. The law will increase the affordability of health coverage through the marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). And it will create new federal incentives that would more than offset the state’s cost to expand Medicaid, providing health coverage to hundreds of thousands of Alabama adults with low incomes.

“The American Rescue Plan Act throws Alabama’s struggling families a much needed lifeline,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “And it offers budgetary breathing room for policymakers to tackle chronic problems, address longstanding racial and gender inequities and build an economy that works for every Alabamian. Medicaid expansion should be at the very top of our legislators’ to-do list.”

A new pathway to Medicaid expansion in Alabama

The relief package could bring overdue peace of mind to some 300,000 Alabamians living in the health coverage gap. They earn too much to qualify for Medicaid under the state’s stringent income limit but too little to qualify for subsidized ACA marketplace plans.

Nearly seven in 10 Alabamians support expanding Medicaid to cover these adults, a statewide poll found last month. If Gov. Kay Ivey agrees to expansion, the law would give the state a 5-percentage-point increase in federal funding for its traditional Medicaid coverage for two years.

That would bring Alabama an additional $940 million over two years, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimates. And it would remove any remaining financial barrier to Medicaid expansion, said Jane Adams, the Cover Alabama campaign director for Alabama Arise.

“This law is a much-needed step toward closing the health coverage gap in Alabama. We have no time to waste,” Adams said. “Tens of thousands of people have died in the South ‒ my home ‒ because they couldn’t afford to get the health care they needed.

“Medicaid expansion is the single biggest step Alabama can take to weather and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and move our state forward. Congress did their job. Now it is time for Governor Ivey and our state lawmakers to do theirs and immediately expand Medicaid in Alabama.”

Enhancements to existing Medicaid, marketplace coverage

The relief package also makes multiple coverage improvements for tens of millions of Americans with Medicaid or ACA marketplace plans. Among other changes, the law:

Reduces or eliminates marketplace premiums through 2022. Subsidies will increase across the board, and no one will pay more than 8.5% of income for their health plan.
Eliminates COBRA premiums through September 2021.
Protects against tax liability on premium assistance because of income fluctuation.
Increases funding for COVID-19 testing and vaccine distribution.
Gives Alabama the option to increase the income limit and coverage period for postpartum Medicaid coverage.
Increases federal funding for home- and community-based Medicaid long-term care services.
Increases federal funding for substance abuse prevention and treatment and a broad spectrum of mental health services.

Child Tax Credit, EITC expansions will reduce poverty across Alabama

Poverty rates will fall nationwide thanks to tax credits and stimulus payments in the American Rescue Plan Act, studies predict. One of the greatest gains will result from a Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion that could cut the U.S. child poverty rate in half, a Columbia University analysis found.

The relief package makes the full CTC available to children living in families with low or no earnings. It increases the credit’s maximum amount to $3,000 per child and $3,600 for children under age 6. And it extends the credit to 17-year-olds. This CTC expansion will help four in five Alabama children (or nearly 1.1 million), as well as nearly 1 million adults, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) estimates.

Direct payments and expanded tax credits will help Alabamians make ends meet as well. Among other changes, the law:

Provides a one-time payment of $1,400 per person for individuals making up to $75,000 and couples making up to $150,000. Individuals with incomes up to $80,000 and couples with incomes up to $160,000 are eligible for partial payments. These stimulus payments will benefit 91% of adults (3.1 million) and 92% of children in Alabama, ITEP estimates.
Raises the maximum Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for working adults without children from roughly $530 to roughly $1,500. The law also increases the income limit for these adults to qualify from about $16,000 to at least $21,000.
Expands the age range of EITC-eligible workers without children. Younger adults aged 19-24 who are not full-time students can qualify now, as can people 65 and over.
Helps more than 280,000 Alabamians with the EITC improvements mentioned above, CBPP estimates. The vast majority of the Alabamians who will benefit (205,200) have annual incomes below $20,400, according to ITEP.

Boosts to SNAP, unemployment, housing assistance to help Alabamians make ends meet

The American Rescue Plan Act includes additional provisions to keep more households fed and housed. Most urgently, it extends until Sept. 6 the supplemental $300 federal UI benefits that were set to expire this weekend. This extension more than doubles Alabama’s maximum total weekly benefit to $575, or roughly 60% of median household income.

The law also provides $37 billion nationwide in rental and mortgage assistance to help prevent evictions and foreclosures. For Alabama, this would mean an increase of more than 1,400% from 2020 Emergency Solutions Grant funding if states receive funding proportionate to their populations.

In addition, the package continues a 15% boost to food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through September. This increase will help nearly 800,000 Alabamians and bring $64 million in additional SNAP benefits into Alabama, CBPP finds.

The plan takes many other steps to alleviate hardship. Among other changes, the law:

Provides Alabama with $10 million in emergency pandemic Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding. This money is usable for one-time benefits like cash assistance, rental assistance or clothing allowances.
Allows states to continue Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) benefits through early September. P-EBT replaces the value of meals that children miss when schools are closed.
Increases the monthly allocation for fruits and vegetables in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program from $9 to $35 for four months.
Makes the first $10,200 of UI benefits non-taxable for households with incomes below $150,000.
Excludes discharged student loan amounts from taxable income calculation through 2026.

“Everyone should know the security of having food on the table and a roof overhead,” Hyden said. “The American Rescue Plan Act will help ease Alabamians’ suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic. And it will lay a foundation to build a stronger, more inclusive Alabama in its aftermath.”

Policies to advance racial, gender equity key to Alabama workforce’s COVID-19 recovery, new Alabama Arise report shows

By Chris SandersFebruary 22, 2021February 22, 2021

Alabama should rebuild from the COVID-19 recession by lifting policy barriers to economic opportunity and charting a path toward a more equitable and inclusive future, according to The State of Working Alabama 2021, a new report that Alabama Arise released Monday.

Medicaid expansion and a state law guaranteeing paid sick leave both would help strengthen Alabama’s workforce, the report says. Other policy recommendations include higher funding for nutrition and housing assistance and improvements to the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) system.

The Alabama Legislature moved quickly to pass “pro-business” bills in the opening days of the 2021 regular session. These measures included a new law providing a broad range of civil immunity against claims related to coronavirus exposure. As lawmakers return to Montgomery after a weeklong break, their policymaking focus should shift toward addressing their constituents’ urgent needs during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said.

“Legislators spent the first two weeks of this session protecting the interests of corporations,” Hyden said. “They should spend the rest of the session protecting the interests of the people of Alabama. And Arise’s State of Working Alabama report provides a blueprint for how to do just that.”

COVID-19’s toll has fallen heavily on women, Black and Hispanic/Latinx Alabamians

Arise’s seven-section report examines economic challenges – both old and new – that Alabamians have faced over the last year. Health coverage, housing, hunger, wages and working conditions for front-line workers are among the topics covered in The State of Working Alabama 2021. The report also highlights how the pandemic has exacerbated preexisting racial, gender and regional disparities in our state.

COVID-19 job losses hit Black workers nearly twice as hard as other Alabamians. Black workers made up 25% of Alabama's workforce in 2020 but 47% of Alabama's unemployment insurance claimants in 2020.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Alabama in March 2020, it didn’t just cause massive human suffering and economic disruption,” the Arise report says. “It also revealed suffering and disruption that have long existed and that policymakers have long neglected – or even perpetuated.”

Past policy decisions left Alabama inadequately prepared to respond to the pandemic, the report finds. They also created and maintained racial and gender disparities that prevent our state from reaching its full potential. Among the report’s major findings:

Alabama’s “essential workers,” hailed as pandemic heroes, often lack the basic protections of a living wage, health insurance, paid sick leave and family medical leave.
COVID-19 has caused disproportionate unemployment for Black people and women in Alabama. Economically disadvantaged counties in the Black Belt and other parts of Alabama also have lagged behind in unemployment recovery.
Before the pandemic, 62.2% of Alabama’s white workers had health insurance through their jobs. The same was true for only 46.4% of Black workers and just 35.5% of Hispanic/Latinx workers. The pandemic has widened those racial/ethnic disparities in health coverage.
Hunger has been widespread in Alabama’s communities of color during the COVID-19 recession. Early in the pandemic, nearly 21% of Black residents and 19% of Hispanic/Latinx residents said they didn’t have enough food.
Black and Hispanic/Latinx Alabamians are at higher risk of eviction for inability to pay rent. Even basic apartments are out of financial reach for low-wage workers everywhere in Alabama.

Policies to increase equity, expand economic opportunity for working Alabamians

Alabama’s policy legacy has exacerbated the damage that COVID-19 has wreaked on working people across the state, the report finds. The State of Working Alabama 2021 outlines a policy agenda to repair that damage and promote broadly shared prosperity. Among the report’s key recommendations:

Expand Medicaid to ensure more than 300,000 Alabamians with low incomes can afford treatment for COVID-19 and other health problems.
Guarantee permanent paid sick leave for all working Alabamians, so that no one has to choose between earning a paycheck and going to work sick.
Roll back the 2019 cuts to Alabama’s UI benefits and create a modernized claims system capable of handling future crises.
Provide state support for the Alabama Housing Trust Fund and abandon efforts to impose harmful limits on safety net programs.
Expand high-speed, affordable broadband technology, targeting rural and low-income communities and explicitly addressing racial equity in broadband access.

Hispanic and Black Alabamians are more likely to lack health coverage. 32.8% of Hispanic/Latinx residents were uninsured in the spring/early summer stage of the pandemic, and 20.7% were uninsured in the late summer/fall stage. The corresponding rates for Black residents were 17.8% and 13.5%. For white residents, the rates were 11.7% and 11.5%.

“The economic, racial and gender inequities in Alabama are preventable and reversible,” Alabama Arise policy director Jim Carnes said. “These disparities are the direct result of bad policy choices in the past. By making better choices now and in the future, we can chart a path toward a more equitable economy. The power to build a stronger, more inclusive Alabama is in the hands of our lawmakers – and all of us.”

About The State of Working Alabama 2021

Click here to read the executive summary of The State of Working Alabama 2021. Links to each of the report’s seven sections are available at the bottom of the page. You also can jump directly to a section using the links below.

Introduction: The high cost of failing to protect the common good
Unequal by design: COVID-19 and Alabama’s policy legacy
Assessing the damage: COVID-19 and Alabama’s labor market
Praised but underprotected: Front-line workers in the pandemic
Why coverage matters: Health care in the time of COVID-19
The ugly reality: Alabama’s hunger problem during the pandemic
No place to call home: Housing insecurity amid COVID-19

Issue: Budgets