Building on our momentum for the new year

By David Stout, legislative director

As we close out 2025, Arise members and member organizations can reflect on a very successful year. Reducing the state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2% and guaranteeing more students in public schools get a free breakfast with a $7.3 million budget appropriation were two of the biggest highlights worth celebrating. 

Improvements were also made in maternal health, including tax cuts passed for maternal and infant care products as well as those that fell under the “pink tax” such as diapers, baby formula and feminine hygiene products. Expecting mothers became eligible for Medicaid during the early days of their pregnancy, creating an increased opportunity for healthy pregnancies and babies. For the first time, a progressive model for parental leave for education employees and state workers became law. 

Arise aggressively fought to ensure SNAP benefits remained intact among federal changes. These successes come from the dedicated and engaged members who have remained steadfast in Arise’s mission to make Alabama more responsive to its citizens.

The 2026 legislative session, the last session of the quadrennium before lawmakers will face the public at the voting booth, is gearing up to be another busy time for Arise. Below is our roadmap for how we will prepare for the challenges ahead.

Health equity

Arise will continue our commitment to expand Medicaid and ensure health care for more Alabamians. With the growing lack of access to maternal health care, we will also continue the fight to protect and improve access for life-saving maternal care and contraception. In the realm of improving our current Medicaid coverage, Alabama is ranked 49th for dental care. We will work to expand access to adult dental benefits for Medicaid members.

Hunger relief

While 2025 saw a significant step forward in no-cost school meals, almost 30 percent of students still lack access to school breakfast or lunch. Arise will work to protect and expand funding for school meals as well as the Summer EBT program (now SUN Bucks) for low-income students. Arise will also be a voice of reason to block ill-intended limitations on the purchase of certain items under SNAP guidelines.

Adequate state budgets

With the constant waste of lucrative tax incentives going to big corporations, we must remain vigilant to protect our budgets from excessive giveaways, ill-conceived tax exemptions and tax credits. The biggest threat to the Education Trust Fund is the relatively new tax credit for private school students from the CHOOSE Act that allows up to $7,000 per student, a drain on public school resources. 

If income caps are removed, more than $500 million in school tax dollars could go to previously enrolled private school students. In 2026, Arise will continue to oppose any expansion of the CHOOSE Act.

Alabama does not currently provide any state funds for the Housing Trust Fund to support more affordable housing for low-income, elderly, and disabled citizens. Equally insufficient is the state’s failure  to fund the Public Transportation Trust Fund, which could secure up to an 80% percent match in federal funds. Arise will continue to fight to fund the Alabama Housing Trust Fund and the Public Transportation Trust Fund.

Inclusive democracy

The constant effort to suppress voting in Alabama demands we expand voting rights with comprehensive legislation, including allowing people to cast an absentee ballot without unnecessary, trivial restrictions. We will work to remove barriers for people who have been banned from voting because of a criminal conviction. We will also continue to oppose laws attacking the inclusion of immigrants, Black Alabamians and other racial and ethnic minorities in our society. 

Justice reform

In 2018, Arise worked to eliminate judicial override, a policy that allowed judges to impose a death sentence against the will of the jury. Unfortunately, the law was not retroactive. With nearly 30 people still on death row because of this outdated and now illegal policy, it’s time to make judicial override retroactive and seek justice for those condemned.

We must also work to reform Alabama’s three-strikes law, which disproportionately impacts low-income defendants. Under this law, a person could be serving a life sentence because of a series of minor infractions. Adding to the burden of prison overcrowding, Alabama’s parole system has been plagued by unworkable guidelines, driving our prison overcrowding crisis and making our system more punitive, not restorative. It’s time to make the parole system more fair, transparent and efficient.

Tax reform

Faced with tariffs and increasing food costs, there’s never been a better time to fully eliminate Alabama’s tax on groceries. A larger share of the burden falls on those with lower incomes, who spend more of their income on food than the wealthy. Arise supports a more progressive and fair income tax that recognizes the inequities in our tax rates.          

Worker power

The newest priority on our 2026 legislative agenda is supporting worker power legislation in partnership with organized labor. Our primary goal will be to remove tax incentives from companies that employ child labor and violate workers’ rights. We will also work to expand paid parental leave policies to cover more state employees, teachers and other workers. Often, the person most abused is the temporary worker, who has no rights. Arise will work to pass workplace protections in a Temp Workers’ Bill of Rights to improve on-the-job conditions, along with a pathway for full-time jobs.

Arise’s 2026 priorities highlight our roadmap for change in Alabama

By Matt Okarmus, senior communications associate

Nearly 600 members voted to affirm Alabama Arise’s 2026 legislative priorities after this fall’s Annual Meeting. In order, our priorities for the next four years will be:

• Health equity
• Hunger relief
• Adequate state budgets
• Inclusive democracy
• Justice reform
• Tax reform
• Worker power

Arise adopted a new approach to member voting on legislative priorities for 2026, helping us better commit to multiyear advocacy on the issues that matter most to our members. This approach better reflects the depth and breadth of Arise’s work.

Email organizing director Presdelane Harris at pres@alarise.org to set up an issue preview event in your area ahead of the Legislature’s 2026 session, which starts on Tuesday, Jan. 13th.

Long federal road ahead for SNAP, health care

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst, and Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director

Alabama Arise believes that society should care for the most vulnerable in our nation—children, the elderly, those who are disabled and those who have fallen on temporary hard times. Since the Great Depression, Americans have been assured that, no matter how hard times get, our basic nutritional needs would be met by our government.

But 2025 has been a head-spinning and traumatic year for the 750,000 Alabama recipients of SNAP food assistance (commonly called Food Stamps), a stable pillar in America’s response to poverty and hunger. For 60 years, through multiple federal shutdowns, budget crises and wars, SNAP assistance has reliably fed hungry Americans. 2025 was different. 

Bill doesn’t help those who need it

HR1, the budget reconciliation bill (or “One Big Beautiful Bill”) passed by Congress in July, made it harder for people to receive food assistance and reduced the amount of assistance available, even as grocery costs rose. Existing time limits and burdensome paperwork requirements for some SNAP recipients were expanded to include unhoused people, veterans, children aging out of foster care and elderly recipients. 

Non-citizens and refugees legally in the U.S. were denied food assistance. And states, for the first time, will have to pay for some SNAP benefit costs. By mid-2027, Alabama will have to come up with approximately $175M to pay for our existing SNAP program.

Shutdown deepened impact

The October federal government shutdown only made the food crisis worse. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) refused to use its emergency funds and instead cut off food assistance to 42 million Americans, including all SNAP recipients in Alabama. 

Food banks and pantries, bolstered by small state grants, tried to fill the gap but many of our neighbors faced hunger as the holidays approached. The ending of the shutdown allowed the Department of Human Resources to get SNAP benefits out in record time, but legal immigrants face immediate termination of SNAP benefits. And many more people face new, draconian time limits that began in December. 

And many of the same people face huge increases in the cost of their health care.

Health costs will soar

As of this writing, Congress has not extended enhanced premium tax credits (ePTCs), which lower monthly premiums for nearly 500,000 Alabamians who get their coverage through the ACA Marketplace. As a result, 130,000 Alabamians are expected to lose coverage. This decision threatens to roll back the significant progress Alabama has made in reducing its uninsured rate.

The enhanced tax credits have played a central role in that progress. Lowering premiums opened Healthcare.gov plans to workers who had long been locked out of affordable coverage. Nearly half of Alabama’s Healthcare.gov enrollees fall into income ranges that would qualify them for Medicaid expansion if they lived in the 40 states that have expanded. Without the credits, many will face premiums they simply cannot pay, increasing the number of uninsured at a time when families are already navigating high costs of living.

This shift will place additional pressure on Alabama’s health care system, especially rural hospitals and clinics that already struggle with staffing shortages, rising uncompensated care, and service reductions. 

HR 1 complicates health care access

Federal changes under HR 1 create additional challenges. The law eliminates financial incentives meant to help states like Alabama adopt Medicaid expansion, including extra federal funding that would have supported expansion startup costs for the first two years. It also places new restrictions on increasing provider taxes, which Alabama uses to help fund its share of Medicaid. These limits would become more restrictive if Alabama chose to expand Medicaid in the future, and even now, they place a long-term cap on our state’s flexibility to finance Medicaid as health care costs continue to rise.

HR 1 also shifts new SNAP funding responsibilities to states. This will strain the state budget at a time when food insecurity is rising and families are struggling to meet basic needs.

Taken together, these issues ensure that health care and food access will be unavoidable priorities in the 2025 legislative session. The coming year will bring real challenges, but it also offers Alabama lawmakers an opportunity and a responsibility to strengthen the state’s health and nutrition safety nets at a moment when Alabamians need them most.

Southwest Alabama organizer Bernadette Allen brings new energy to Alabama Arise

By Whitney Washington, communications associate

Bernadette Allen is one of Arise’s newest staff members, joining our team as the Southwest Alabama organizer in May 2025. Like many other staff members, she began her career in a different field before joining Alabama Arise.

Bernadette worked in the federal government for 18 years, retiring last May. In her free time, she sought opportunities to serve her community by volunteering with Stand Up Mobile and Black Voters Matter. Her colleagues and friends suggested she apply at Arise. And as she says, “The rest is history.”

In less than a year, Bernadette has learned a great deal from her colleagues on the organizing team.

“Formeeca and Tamela have suggested we use video shorts on social media platforms to engage young people in our work. I believe their vision will soon be a major medium through which we attract new Arise groups, individual members, partners and employees,” she says.

She’s especially fond of Arise’s longest-serving organizer, Stan Johnson.

“I would like to trade places with [Stan] as long as I had access to the knowledge he has gleaned from at least half of his lived experiences, personally and professionally,” she says. “To me he is the ‘triple OG’ of organizing.”

She’s learned to practice self care to do her job as well as she can.

“I care for myself by intentionally balancing work and personal life activities,” she says. “I treat myself to fine dining, live entertainment, golfing and traveling multiple times in a year.”

A Mobile native, Bernadette loves celebrating Mardi Gras.

“Alabamians and tourists celebrate the season in harmony without regard for race, color, religion, gender, sexuality or socioeconomic status.”

Bernadette has lots of dreams for her tenure at Arise. She’d love to bring more young people into our work and hopes to have Arise active in as many areas of the state as possible.

Members have had an impact on Bernadette. She sees them as integral to our mission and looks forward to all the ways she can continue to work with them. From attending events like listening sessions and Legislative Day to sharing action alerts, members make Arise’s mission a reality.

Bernadette is an unmistakable new force at Arise, and she’s excited to see what’s next.

“I have a passion for advocating for people who are marginalized in any way, shape or form,” she says. “I make no apologies for meeting the moment with the same energy and enthusiasm that comes from the opposition.”

My trip to South Africa: learning from another young democracy

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

I was fortunate this fall to join a unique learning exchange of 10 leaders from across the U.S. and 9 colleagues from South Africa. We spent a week traveling in their country and meeting with grassroots leaders, starting in Johannesburg and later moving to the coastal town of Durban to learn from their nation’s struggle to defeat an apartheid government and establish a multiracial, multifaith and multiethnic democracy. 

Our own multiracial democracy is not so well-established, given that many Alabamians were legally barred from voting rights in our state until 60 years ago, and these rights remain consistently under threat. Black voters are still blocked from voting at a rate three times that of white voters due to unequal sentencing and felony disenfranchisement laws, and numerous rules have been proposed just this year that would effectively disenfranchise naturalized immigrants.

From our South African colleagues, I learned coalitions of solidarity to protect the rights of everyone across lines of race, religion and ethnicity are hard-won. These relationships must be carefully fostered and protected in our movements. Democracy itself is fragile and under continuous threat in both of our nations. We must become consistent champions of democratic participation at every level for a free society to flourish.

When our colleagues come to Montgomery next spring for the 2026 Selma Jubilee Celebration, I imagine continuing our fellowship by sharing lessons, camaraderie, joy – and most of all hope – for a more democratic and inclusive future.

Join us this holiday season

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

We know people are struggling because of bad public policies, especially this year. We’re grateful to our partner organizations leading the charge with direct services. At Alabama Arise, we are focused on the root of the problem – improving policies for all Alabamians. 

Because you’re a member, you know that you can go to alarise.org/donate to make a one-time gift. But there are other ways to give that you may not have thought about:

You can give to our 501(c)(4) partner organization Alabama Arise Action at alariseaction.org. Funding for Alabama Arise Action allows us to send action alerts and increase lobbying efforts at the State House. 

You can also make a gift that lasts! When we receive a bequest, it has a lasting impact. Leave us in your will so that we can keep working on our shared vision.

Finally, make a monthly gift! Go to alarise.org/donate and select “make my gift recurring.” We work year round to engage everyday people in policy–it’s not just during the legislative session.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me at jacob@alarise.org. Thank you for your generosity this holiday season.

Thank you for a great year!

As a statewide organization, the staff of Alabama Arise rarely are parked in an office setting. From listening sessions, to meeting with lawmakers, to community trainings and meetings (and a lot in between!), we love the opportunity to interact with people all over the state!

After a successful 2025 session, Alabama Arise looks toward the future

By Chris Sanders, communications director

Building a better Alabama for all is not the work of a single year or decade or even lifetime. It’s work that spans generations. Each of us should do our best to build upon the foundation laid by those who came before us, and to equip those who will come after us to reach even greater heights.

As we continue on the path to a brighter future, it’s important to celebrate milestone achievements along the way. Three bill signing ceremonies with Gov. Kay Ivey this summer were opportunities for Alabama Arise to rejoice over several hard-won legislative victories in 2025.

Arise staff members participated in a ceremony on June 12 for the “pink tax” law, which removed the state sales tax from baby formula, diapers, maternity clothing and other items for infants and parents. We also participated in two more ceremonies on July 31: one for a law reducing the state grocery tax from 3% to 2%, and another for the RAISE Act, which made important reforms to Alabama’s education funding formula.

These breakthroughs were just a few of the many policy victories we enjoyed this year. All of them resulted from years of determined advocacy by Arise members and supporters.

With an eye toward the long term, Arise will ask members this month to approve a list of legislative priorities for 2026-29. Members then will vote on which issue areas are most important to them and have the option to rank legislative proposals under each issue.

This multiyear commitment will allow Arise to focus more deeply on the issues that our members have chosen consistently in recent years. And it will empower us to continue working effectively to advance dignity, equity and justice for every Alabamian.

Annual Meeting to chart Arise’s course for 2026 and beyond

By Matt Okarmus, senior communications associate

Grassroots democracy will be on display when Alabama Arise members help shape our 2026 legislative priorities at our Annual Meeting on Saturday, Sept. 27. There will be options to meet both in person and online via Zoom.

The Arise board voted to adjust the way we select our legislative agenda starting this year.

We will ask members to adopt seven broad issue categories for the next four years (2026-29). Then we will ask members to rank the categories in order of importance and give them the option to rank the priority legislation under each category.

Below, you’ll find more information on the Annual Meeting. We will be meeting again at the Legacy Annex in Montgomery. You’ll also see our policy staff’s overviews of Arise’s legislative priorities. We hope you join us as we gather to renew our shared commitment to building a better Alabama for all!

Things to know for our Annual Meeting

When: 

Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Where: 

This is a hybrid event with options to attend in person as well as remotely via Zoom. The in-person meeting will be at The Legacy Annex, 115 Coosa St., Montgomery, AL 36104. This is the former site of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum.

Visit alarise.org/2025annualmeeting to find more details and registration information. There is no cost to attend, though donations are welcome. 

New this year: 

We will ask members to adopt seven broad issue categories for the next four years (2026-29). Arise’s bylaws empower members to adopt multiyear priorities, and the first two categories below are already permanent issues.

The seven categories are adequate state budgets, tax reform, health equity, hunger relief, inclusive democracy, justice reform and worker power. We will ask members to affirm these seven issues and rank the categories in order of importance to them. They then will have the option to vote on priority legislation for each issue.

For more information: 

If you have any questions, call the Arise office at 334-832-9060 or email info@alarise.org.

Proposed 2026-29 legislative priorities

Compiled by Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst; Jennifer Harris, senior health policy advocate; Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director; and Dev Wakeley, worker policy advocate

State budgets

Adequate funding for vital public services is at the core of Alabama Arise’s work to better a better Alabama for all. Our state has two primary budgets: the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and General Fund (GF). The ETF funds K-12 and higher education and related state expenses. The GF funds all other state services, including health care, human resources, highways, law enforcement and corrections. Revenue growth in both budgets have slowed in recent years, but both budgets are relatively healthy compared to past years. Year-to-date growth has been 3.26% in the ETF and 3.22% in the GF. While these modest increases normally would ease fears of a budget crisis, unmet needs and the shifting of federal obligations to the state present major challenges for the 2026 legislative session.

Funding for public schools will be at growing risk in coming years from the CHOOSE Act, passed In 2024. The law allows parents to apply to the state for up to $7,000 per child to pay for private school or up to $2,000 per child for home schooling. By July 2025, more than $124 million in education funds had been diverted from public schools to private education under the CHOOSE Act, news reports indicate. And this amount will only increase in future years as the temporary income eligibility cap disappears and higher-income families become eligible for the credits. Arise will seek next year to restrict eligibility for CHOOSE Act subsidies to families with low and moderate incomes or to cap the amount of funds that can be diverted under the act.

On a more positive note, Arise was active this year in passing the RAISE Act. This law took an important first step toward increasing funding for public schools that disproportionately serve students who live in families with low incomes, receive special education services or are learning English as a second language. Arise will continue advocating for the students and communities with the highest needs as Alabama implements the RAISE Act.

Arise has advocated for increased public transportation funding for years. We were successful in advocating for creation of the Public Transportation Trust Fund in 2018, but the Legislature has never provided state funds for it. While the best long-term option would be a dedicated funding source, creating a new fee or tax likely will be a heavy lift politically in 2026 due to it being an election year.

Arise will focus next year on securing a $25 million GF appropriation for public transportation. This state money would let Alabama access up to $100 million of federal matching funds, reducing our long-term investment deficit. Localities also could purchase more transit equipment — mostly buses and transit vans — from companies manufacturing in Alabama, further boosting the state economy.

Housing affordability remains a major problem for Alabamians. Much like public transit, the Legislature created a funding pathway in the Housing Trust Fund (HTF) but never put any state money in it to address the need. Arise will be seeking $20 million from the GF to help reduce the state’s shortfall of 73,000 affordable and available homes for working people.

The HTF is flexible in how funds can be used. HTF money can be used for preservation, financing, renovation and even publicly owned housing. So when the HTF is funded, local governments can use the money to address their communities’ particular needs.

Health equity

Medicaid expansion would be an essential step to help ensure no Alabamian has to go without needed medical care because they can’t afford it. But the path forward for expansion became more complicated after passage of the federal budget reconciliation act in July. The 90% federal match rate for expansion funding remains a strong incentive for Alabama to expand Medicaid, but Congress added some restrictions to limit expansion’s budgetary appeal for states. In addition, the law failed to renew enhanced tax credits for Marketplace health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Unless Congress renews these credits later this year, hundreds of thousands of Alabamians will face huge premium increases, and many likely will become uninsured.

In this climate, full Medicaid expansion may be harder to achieve in the near term. But Arise and our Cover Alabama coalition will continue pushing for ways to close the health coverage gap and protect Marketplace coverage. And in the meantime, we will pursue meaningful improvements to Medicaid — just as we did in 2025.

Arise made big gains this year for moms and families by successfully advocating for new laws that improve maternal and infant health outcomes. SB 102 removed paperwork obstacles for many maternity Medicaid patients. SB 199 secured paid parental leave for state employees, teachers and two-year college workers. And HB 152 removed state sales taxes on diapers, baby formula and other necessities for new parents.

Arise will continue our maternal health work by supporting measures to ensure access to contraceptives, which are vital to reproductive health and family economic stability. We also are working to address oral health disparities in our state. Alabama is losing ground in preventing tooth decay and fighting growing oral health deserts. Limited resources often restrict receiving preventive care or treatment in a timely manner. Arise will work with partners and advocates to support oral health advocacy and access.

Hunger relief

As co-convenor of the Hunger Free Alabama (HFA) coalition, Arise actively seeks to protect and expand critical food assistance programs. We have successfully expanded child nutrition programs and stopped new barriers to food assistance at the state level. In 2024, we successfully convinced state policymakers to adopt the SUN Bucks (Summer EBT) program starting in 2025. This program provides food assistance for hundreds of thousands of school-aged children during the summer months. In 2026, we will work to ensure that Alabama continues to provide SUN Bucks in future years.

Arise and Hunger Free Alabama secured a supplemental ETF appropriation of $7.3 million this year to help expand access to free breakfast in Alabama schools. In 2026, we will work to institutionalize these funds in annual ETF budgets. We also will seek to increase the allocation if necessary so that every school that wishes to offer free breakfast to their students can do so.

Congress in July passed a budget reconciliation law that will make it harder for families across Alabama to make ends meet. The law shifted some of the costs of providing food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from the federal government to states. SNAP provides essential food aid for 1 in 7 Alabamians, or more than 750,000 people statewide. But to maintain SNAP, the Legislature next year must provide an additional $35 million annually for SNAP administration. And beginning in 2027, Alabama may have to cover an estimated $172 million a year in SNAP benefit costs. These new obligations will be a heavy lift for the Legislature. Arise and our HFA partners are gearing up to ensure this ill-conceived congressional act does not take basic food assistance away from our people.

Inclusive democracy

Arise’s work to advance inclusive democracy remains important and timely amid nationwide attacks on democracy, especially in a state with a history of attacking voting rights. A successful federal lawsuit in 2023 forced the state to create a second U.S. House district where Black voters have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choosing. But the Legislature remains largely hostile to bills that create more opportunities for voters to participate in elections.

Still, some Arise-backed efforts to remove voting barriers have moved forward. A bill to smooth the voting rights restoration process for returning citizens who are eligible to regain voting rights nearly passed in the 2025 session. This bill would require the Secretary of State’s Office and the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles to post information about the process for regaining voting rights on agency websites.

Another bill with bipartisan support would allow voters to cast absentee ballots without having to state a reason. Under current law, voters must fill out an affidavit stating that they meet one of a specified list of reasons to vote absentee. This is cumbersome and unnecessary, and allowing no-cause absentee voting would make voting more accessible to many Alabamians.

Justice reform

Alabama’s justice system remains riddled with injustices and behind the curve on smart reform. The state’s prisons remain overcrowded, violent and negligent in protecting people while they are imprisoned. And the results have been tragic, with more than 600 people dying while imprisoned in 2023-24, more than double the annual average from 2019-21.

The 2026 session being an election year may make advocacy on some Arise justice priorities more difficult than usual. Still, we will continue advocating for reforms to rebuild an incarceration system designed to rehabilitate and protect people. Some Arise-supported improvements have been implemented in recent years, such as greater flexibility for judges to impose split sentences. These are sentences where a person spends part of their sentence in a community corrections program.

We will work to reform our state’s dysfunctional parole system, recently made worse with punitive new parole guidelines, by supporting a bill to increase the state parole board’s accountability to the Legislature and allow court appeals of wrongful parole denials. We also will continue our advocacy to fix oversentencing resulting from the Habitual Felony Offender Act, a relic of overly punitive incarceration beliefs that keeps people in prison long after they are ready to rejoin society.

Arise will continue advocating to eliminate injustices in Alabama’s death penalty system. We will work to make retroactive the Legislature’s 2017 ban on judicial override. This practice allowed judges to impose the death penalty against the will of a jury. Dozens of people sentenced under judicial override are still on death row nearly a decade after legislators banned the practice. We also will work to reform the state’s felony murder rule, which can be used to convict people of murder even if they did not intend to kill or actually kill anyone. This practice often results in miscarriages of justice and contributes to longstanding racial bias in our state’s incarceration system.

Tax reform

Arise has worked for decades to right the wrongs of Alabama’s upside-down tax system, and we secured two huge wins this year. We successfully advocated to reduce the state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2% and to give cities and counties more flexibility to reduce local grocery taxes. We also helped pass a new law to remove state sales taxes from many essential items for infants and parents, including baby formula, diapers and maternity clothing.

Arise believes 2026 is the right time to eliminate the remaining 2% state grocery tax. But we also believe it is irresponsible in the long term to cut taxes without adequate replacement revenue, especially given Alabama’s numerous unmet funding needs for education, health care and other vital services. Arise will continue to encourage the Legislature to consider progressive reforms that tax wealthy people and highly profitable corporations based on their ability to pay, while making taxes fairer for people with low and moderate incomes.

Worker power

Alabama’s economy isn’t built for working people. When workers have control over their workplace and the ability to hold officials accountable, all Alabamians benefit through better economic and quality-of-life measures. Ongoing organizing campaigns in the auto, retail and manufacturing industries, wins on paid family leave and opportunities to improve corporate accountability are good chances to improve life for working individuals and families across the state.

Jobs to Move America has proposed that Arise add a new legislative priority to this area: the Temp Workers’ Bill of Rights. Temporary workers are often subject to abuse and exploitation at high rates, and enshrining protections for these workers would help low-wage workers gain stability. Fair scheduling notice, proposed by the United Auto Workers, would be an opportunity to help build a fairer workplace across all types of workplaces. Many workers have no protections if management demands they come in with just hours of notice. Providing recourse when employers regularly disregard workers’ lives outside work would be a strong step toward better workplaces.

Arise will continue efforts to strip tax incentives from companies that violate child labor laws. This effort results from recent drastic increases in child labor violations across the United States and cases in Alabama where child workers were harmed and killed while illegally employed in dangerous work. This bill came close to passing last year.

Arise also will continue our work to expand paid family and medical leave to more Alabama workers. Paid parental leave is now available to teachers and other K-12 school personnel, community college workers and state employees thanks to the enactment of SB 199. This policy will improve health outcomes for babies and new mothers and increase economic security for vital workers. It also will help women remain in the workforce and reduce turnover. Broadening parental leave and providing other types of paid leave guarantees for workers will improve job quality throughout the state.

Provisional issue: Include the Public in the Public Service Commission

Submitted by Rev. Mark Johnston, Environmental Defense Alliance (EDA)

Note: The Alabama Arise board has voted to accept this issue as a provisional issue. It will not be on the ballot at the Annual Meeting and will not officially join Arise’s agenda in 2026. Arise staff will spend the next year researching the issue and report back to our members about challenges and opportunities if Arise were to adopt this issue in the future.

Does it seem to you that your energy costs are high and getting higher? If so, you are correct. It is true all over the country, and in Alabama, we are one of the states with the highest energy burden. “Energy burden” describes the percentage of income that a family pays for electricity and gas. In some analyses, other expenses for utilities are included. Numerous studies have revealed a high energy burden situation in Alabama. Move.org says our residents have the third-highest utility costs. The U.S. Department of Energy also places Alabama residents in the top five states in regards to energy burden.

Of course, high energy burdens impact low-income people the most. Studies indicate that Black people are most impacted by an energy burden. The Department of Energy reports that Alabama is one of five states whose energy burden for low-income people is 36% higher than the national average for this income category. The burden reduces the work power of our people to move out of poverty.

There are several reasons why the burden is so high in Alabama. The good news is that there are solutions being used around the country to deal with this problem. It is also likely that we have some solutions specific to Alabama. The Public Service Commission is charged with regulating energy producers in Alabama. 

The Environmental Defense Alliance (EDA) proposes that Arise analyze Alabama’s energy burden problem. We suggest a shift in Arise policy to begin lobbying the PSC as well as the Alabama Legislature for solutions. It is difficult to develop a timeline for change, but it is likely that a shift in policy to reduce Alabama’s energy burden could result in new potential income sources because there is so much interest around the country in reducing the electricity used that produces CO2. Let’s get to work!

2025 has been a roller coaster of a year for Alabama Arise

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

After years of advocacy, Alabama Arise and our partners secured several huge victories for low-income and working people at the State House this year! These legislative wins included:

• An additional reduction of the state grocery tax.
• A law removing the state sales tax on many women’s health products, maternity care items and baby care items. 
• The first-ever state appropriation to expand no-cost school breakfast.
• Continued funding for Summer EBT, known as SUN Bucks. 
• Guaranteed paid parental leave for all state employees and teachers.
• Improved health care access through the Alabama Maternal Health Act.
• Reforms to the state’s funding formula for K-12 schools through the RAISE Act.

In most years, we would be celebrating the passage of just one of these bills, let alone seven. We also successfully opposed several bills targeting people participating in safety net programs like SNAP, Medicaid and unemployment insurance. And we successfully opposed some of the bills attacking our immigrant neighbors.

Our wins at the State House show that solidarity works. Multi-issue advocacy works. Long-term investment in power-building and community organizing, focused on engaging everyday people, is effective.

But even as we celebrate these victories, we see that our idea of an inclusive democracy is under threat. Bills attacking immigrants and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have been passed and implemented. These measures use a time-tested “divide and conquer” approach to try to make working-class people turn against each other instead of uniting around their common interests.

The passage of a cruel federal budget law has challenged our collective hopes for our country. This legislation could throw a major wrench in our plans to expand health coverage and alleviate hunger. And it could undermine our efforts to build a more progressive tax system, a more responsive government and a more inclusive democracy.

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, we have a lot of work to do to defend and expand our democracy to be “responsive, inclusive and justice-serving,” as we say in Arise’s vision for an Alabama “where all people live with concern for the common good and respect for the humanity of every person.”

We need your support now more than ever. When the history of these times is written, Arise members will be those who were working on the side of dignity, equity and justice, for all of us. Thank you for standing with us.

What the new federal budget law means for SNAP, health care in Alabama

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst, and Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director

While many Alabamians were celebrating July 4, Congress passed a sweeping budget reconciliation law that will hurt families across the country. To extend more than $1 trillion of tax cuts for the richest Americans, Congress slashed health care, food assistance and other vital services for ordinary people.

“It’s wrong to hurt people who are struggling to help people who are already far ahead,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said after the bill’s passage. “But Congress just passed legislation that will do exactly that. This budget bill is not only a moral failure. It’s bad policy, and it is a really bad deal for Alabama and our entire country.”

The biggest cuts nationally will be to Medicaid and to food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Alabama has not yet expanded Medicaid to cover adults with low incomes, but the harmful new budget law will make it harder for our state to improve and expand health care access. And the law’s SNAP cuts and barriers will increase hunger and hardship across Alabama.

SNAP cuts will make it harder to make ends meet

The SNAP cuts will threaten Alabama’s ability to fund essential state services. They also will impose red-tape barriers for SNAP participants and reduce the future buying power of SNAP.

Threats to state budgets: Beginning in 2026, the Alabama Legislature will have to appropriate an estimated $35 million a year in new funding for SNAP administration. Beginning in 2027, the Legislature also may have to appropriate an estimated $172 million annually in new funding to help cover SNAP benefits, which have been fully federally funded for decades. If Alabama lawmakers cannot or will not provide the required state share of funding, the state would have to reduce the number of SNAP participants or opt out of the program entirely. Eliminating SNAP would end food assistance for more than 750,000 Alabamians and send hunger rates soaring in a state where 1 in 4 children already struggle with food insecurity.

Changes that place time limits on more people who receive SNAP: Many older adults, families with teen children, veterans, people who are experiencing homelessness and young adults who were in foster care may face burdensome new work reporting requirements to receive food assistance. And beginning immediately, many people who are legally in the United States as refugees, asylum seekers or victims of domestic violence or sexual assault may no longer be eligible for SNAP.

Changes that likely will reduce the amount of SNAP assistance over time: The new law prohibits the federal government from making substantive changes to the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan, on which the amount of SNAP benefits is based. This change will reduce the value of SNAP assistance over time.

Health care cuts will increase human suffering

Reconciliation cuts to Medicaid primarily targeted states that had expanded Medicaid, but the bill also will make it harder for Alabama to improve our Medicaid program. The law also failed to renew subsidies that make health coverage more affordable for hundreds of thousands of Alabamians.

The law eliminates key financial incentives that encouraged Alabama and other states to expand Medicaid. We no longer will be eligible for $619 million in additional federal funding on top of the 90% federal match, which would have helped pay for the startup costs of Medicaid expansion.

The law also includes restrictions on provider taxes — a key tool Alabama uses to help fund its share of Medicaid. This will make it more difficult for Alabama to expand coverage going forward and could put a long-term limit on how our state finances Medicaid as health care costs rise.

Congress also failed to renew enhanced tax credits that have made Marketplace plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) more affordable since 2021. These subsidies have helped hundreds of thousands of Alabamians lower their monthly premiums. Now, those enhanced subsidies are going away at the end of 2025.

The cuts to healthcare.gov tax credits mean that Alabamians’ monthly premiums will increase and fewer people will qualify for financial help. About 130,000 Alabamians are expected to lose coverage because of these changes.

Where we go from here

Arise is taking numerous steps in response to this law’s passage. These actions include:

• Analyzing the law’s long-term impact on SNAP, Medicaid and ACA financing.
• Creating resources for partners, community organizations and the public to explain the changes and what they mean. 
• Meeting with state and local leaders to discuss options and ensure they understand the financial and human stakes of these changes. 

Even in the face of harmful federal policies, Arise’s commitment to the people of Alabama remains strong. We are working every day to protect access to food and health care and make sure families have the information and support they need.

Diverse membership is our power

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

We just wrapped up our summer Membership Drive, where some of our members – “Arise Ambassadors” – helped grow our membership by inviting friends and neighbors to join Alabama Arise. People join Arise to build a more equitable Alabama. And our members are our power: You choose our legislative priorities and advocate with us at the State House.

We have nearly 2,000 members across the state in more than three-quarters of Alabama counties. And we have set goals to diversify our membership to be more reflective of Alabama’s demographics.

We’re making strong progress on those goals. Through our membership survey (which you can fill out at alarise.org/membership-survey), we have learned 49% of our members are people with low incomes, 9% are people under age 30 and 43% are people of color. This is significant progress over the past year.

If you’re excited about what we can do together, I want to invite you to join the efforts of our Arise Ambassadors and ask the people in your life to become members! To join Arise, they can give a gift of any amount at alarise.org/donate. Or if you know someone who cannot donate but cares about our issues, email senior development associate McKenzie Burton at mckenzie@alarise.org to ask about a free gift membership. Memberships last for a year.

Thank you for your partnership!

Arise celebrates wins from 2025 legislative session

Alabama Arise staff gathered this summer at the State Capitol in Montgomery to celebrate two new laws that will help families across the state. Top of post: Arise legislative director David Stout (left), hunger policy advocate LaTrell Clifford Wood (second from right) and communications director Chris Sanders (right) pose with Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, and Gov. Kay Ivey at a July 31 signing ceremony for the grocery tax reduction law (HB 386), which took effect Sept. 1. Above: Arise executive director Robyn Hyden and senior policy analyst Carol Gundlach (second and third from left) pose with Ivey, Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham (second from right), Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur (third from right) and other advocates at a June 12 ceremony for the “pink tax” law (HB 152), which also took effect Sept. 1.

Congrats to our new ‘seniors’!

Congratulations are in order for three Alabama Arise staff members who received promotions this summer. Formeeca Tripp (left) is now a senior organizer. Matt Okarmus (middle) is now a senior communications associate. And McKenzie Burton (right) is now a senior development associate. We’re excited to honor and expand their ongoing work to build a better Alabama for all!

Grocery tax, paid leave, maternal health highlight triumphant 2025 session for Alabama Arise

By Chris Sanders, communications director

Alabama Arise just wrapped up one of the most successful legislative sessions in our history this year. Life will be better for people across the state as a result – and members like you made it all possible.

Arise members’ advocacy and support pushed legislators to enact numerous laws to reduce hunger and promote healthier families. By the time the Legislature’s 2025 regular session ended May 14, our members were celebrating many important, far-reaching victories:

• Alabama will reduce its state grocery tax and end the state sales tax on many items for infants and new parents.
• The state will guarantee paid parental leave for teachers, two-year college workers and state employees.
• A new law will remove barriers to Medicaid coverage for many expectant mothers.
• Alabama will invest more in efforts to improve child nutrition.

Arise got results in a big way in 2025. Now the work continues. Congress is considering deep federal cuts and harsh barriers to food assistance and health coverage. State lawmakers also enacted some harmful bills this year and will seek to advance others in 2026. Through it all, Arise members will keep speaking out for policies to improve life for Alabamians marginalized by poverty.

Major victories for tax justice in Alabama

For the second time in three years, Alabama is reducing its state sales tax on groceries. HB 386 by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, will reduce the tax from 3% to 2% starting Sept. 1. It also gives cities and counties more flexibility to reduce local grocery taxes.

The law built on the momentum of a 2023 grocery tax reduction, and it passed the House and Senate unanimously. Energy for this change was high all year: More than 200 people packed the State House in Montgomery to urge lawmakers to untax groceries during Arise’s annual Legislative Day on March 20.

HB 386 will help families keep food on the table and is an important step toward tax justice in Alabama. The grocery tax drives many Alabamians deeper into poverty and contributes heavily to our state tax system’s regressive, upside-down nature. Arise will keep advocating to end the grocery tax in a sustainable way that protects funding for public schools.

Another law to help new and growing families make ends meet is HB 152 by Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham. This law will remove the state sales tax on numerous items for infants and parents, including baby formula, diapers, maternity clothing and menstrual hygiene products. The exemptions start Sept. 1 and will expire on Aug. 31, 2028, unless renewed.

New policies for healthier families and children

Arise also advocated successfully for other pro-family, pro-worker legislation. SB 199 by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, will ensure paid parental leave for public school teachers, two-year college workers and state employees starting July 1. The law will provide eight weeks of paid leave to mothers after childbirth, adoption of a child aged 3 or younger, stillbirth or miscarriage. Fathers will receive two weeks of paid leave in those circumstances.

SB 102 by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, is another step forward for maternal health in Alabama. The law, effective Oct. 1, will expand presumptive eligibility, allowing doctors and other health care providers to determine Medicaid eligibility for expectant mothers who likely qualify. This will permit thousands of women to receive prenatal care earlier in their pregnancy.

Arise advocacy also helped increase Alabama’s child nutrition investments. SB 112 and SB 113 by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, allocated $17.3 million to expand school breakfast and continue Summer EBT. Arise members last year successfully pushed for Alabama to participate in Summer EBT starting in 2025. The program will help reduce food insecurity for more than 500,000 children statewide.

One setback this year was enactment of HB 477 by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook. This law authorizes unregulated health plans that could cap benefits for enrollees and charge higher premiums or deny coverage based on preexisting conditions. Arise sought amendments to help mitigate the law’s worst provisions.

The work continues

Several Arise-backed bills made major progress but fell just one step short of going to the governor. Garrett’s HB 389 would have reduced state income taxes for households with low and middle incomes. Coleman-Madison’s SB 153 would have improved Alabama’s voting rights restoration process. And SB 22 by Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, would have allowed the state to remove tax incentives for companies that violate child labor laws.

Arise also helped prevent numerous bad bills from passing. These included proposed new barriers to unemployment insurance benefits, food assistance and Medicaid coverage.

With your support, Arise will keep advocating for essential policy changes in 2026 and beyond. We will keep working to close the health coverage gap and untax groceries forever. And we will continue strengthening our movement for a better, more inclusive Alabama for all.

Join us this summer for listening sessions!

By Presdelane Harris, organizing director 

Listening is both a value and a process. It is foundational to Alabama Arise’s approach to shaping and advancing policies that matter most to those marginalized by poverty.

Arise depends on what we hear to help guide our work toward a better Alabama, and we want to hear from you this summer. Watch your email inbox for info on summer listening sessions happening across the state. And please contact your regional organizer if you’re interested in setting up a virtual or in-person session!

New issue selection process

One of the items to discuss this summer will be Arise’s new issue selection process. We will ask members to adopt seven broad issue categories for the next four years (2026-29). That vote will occur at this year’s Annual Meeting on Sept. 27.

A new issue selection process, still listening

By Presdelane Harris, organizing director

From our founding, Alabama Arise has been strongly committed to member leadership. Directly impacted communities, our member groups and individuals guide and decide our policy agenda.

Over the years, the way we select this agenda has changed as our work has evolved and as times change. Now we are proposing another change.

The Arise board voted to adjust the way we select our legislative agenda starting this year. We will ask you, our members, to approve this new format at our Annual Meeting on Sept. 27.

What will change

We will ask members to adopt seven broad issue categories for the next four years (2026-29). Arise’s bylaws empower members to adopt multi-year priorities, and the first two categories are already permanent issues for Arise. The seven broad issue categories are:

1. Adequate state budgets
2. Tax reform
3. Health equity
4. Hunger relief
5. Inclusive democracy
6. Justice reform
7. Worker power

These seven broad issue categories reflect two things. They summarize the specific issues that members have chosen consistently over the last three years. And they reflect the areas where staff capacity and funding resources have been focused in recent years.

The new process will allow members the opportunity to provide input and rank specific legislative proposals under each category. This ranking will be similar to last year’s voting when, for the first time, members ranked multiple bills under the current priorities.

What will stay the same

Member groups still can propose priority legislation under each category to be considered for inclusion in our agenda. And we still will ask member groups to present board-approved proposals to the membership at the Annual Meeting.

Member groups can propose priority legislation that does not fit one of the categories or propose an additional category of work during the next four years. Such proposals will be flagged as “provisional issues” as we assess our capacity and strategic approach more broadly. Arise staff will evaluate how the category may fit in with our other areas of work. Then staff will report back to membership about whether we think we can strategically undertake a new broad issue area.

Our organizing team will continue conducting summer listening sessions to get input from members and communities directly impacted by poverty. Please reach out to your regional organizer or me with questions or to set up a virtual or in-person listening session!

Federal funding cuts would increase hunger and hardship across Alabama

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst

Congress is advancing a cruel proposal to take away food assistance, health coverage and other vital services from millions of Americans who struggle to afford basic needs.

Why? To give huge tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the country. The bill’s proposed $1.1 trillion of cuts to food assistance and health care over the next decade would be equal to the amount of tax cuts it would provide for the wealthiest 2% of households, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Congressional leaders are pushing the bill through budget reconciliation, a process that bypasses the Senate filibuster and allows legislation to pass with a simple majority vote. That process is ongoing and fluid. The U.S. House voted 215-214 for the bill in late May. By the time you read this, the Senate may have made many changes, some for the better and others for the worse.

The specifics may change, but the bill’s brutal core will remain the same. It will increase suffering for millions of Americans with low incomes to finance tax breaks for wealthy households and highly profitable corporations.

An existential threat to SNAP in Alabama

Alabama likely would feel the worst effects from proposed cuts to food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP helps more than 42 million people nationwide and nearly 800,000 Alabamians put food on the table.

Now, Congress and the White House are threatening those families’ meals in an effort to reduce taxes for billionaires. Three major proposed SNAP changes would have devastating effects on Alabama.

(1) The bill likely would require Alabama to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more for SNAP benefits and administrative costs. The federal government has funded 100% of SNAP benefits for decades. Under the new cost shift, Alabama would become responsible for a projected $258 million or more in direct benefit costs annually, plus an additional $35 million a year in administrative costs.

The General Fund is already facing increasing costs and often stagnant revenues. There is real reason to be concerned that the Legislature can’t, or wouldn’t, commit this money. In that case, Alabama would be forced to cut SNAP benefits significantly – or even eliminate the program altogether.

(2) Congress also is considering expanding SNAP current time limits and work verification red tape for an additional 165,000 Alabamians, including parents with children over age 7. A change of this magnitude would create additional burdens for Alabama’s already stretched child care and child welfare systems. And it could leave thousands of Alabama children and families without food.

(3) Congress is considering limiting future growth in the value of SNAP benefits. Over time, this would reduce benefits for nearly 800,000 SNAP participants in Alabama, including more than 300,000 children, even as food costs continue to grow.

The economic devastation of SNAP cuts

SNAP cuts not only would hurt Alabama’s people. They also would damage Alabama’s economy. More than 5,000 Alabama stores are authorized to accept SNAP payments, and for many, it’s a large part of their business. This is particularly true in small towns and rural communities where retail is a major source of jobs and tax revenue.

Every $1 in SNAP benefits can generate $1.50 in economic activity in local communities, the USDA estimates. Deep SNAP cuts could force layoffs or closures at grocery stores and other retailers across our state. A reduction or loss of SNAP benefits is a threat to our economy and the local communities where we all live and shop.

Threats to Medicaid and ACA coverage

The bill also would make health care inaccessible or less affordable for tens of millions of Americans, including tens of thousands of Alabamians. It would allow enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to expire, increasing premium costs for marketplace plans.

In addition, the bill would create new barriers that would limit Alabama’s ability to manage its own Medicaid program in the future. For example, the legislation would eliminate the federal incentives set aside to help states like Alabama cover the first two years of Medicaid expansion.

Alabama is one of 10 states yet to expand Medicaid to cover adults with low incomes. As a result, nearly 200,000 Alabamians are in the health coverage gap, earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance.

The bill also would freeze provider taxes at current levels. This would ban Alabama from increasing fees on nursing homes, ambulance providers and others to fund Medicaid costs – even if legislators find that move necessary to sustain the program or expand coverage later.

Now is the time to speak out

It is not too late for us, as Alabamians and Alabama Arise members, to raise our voices against this dreadful bill. Congress is hearing the opposition from people back home, and that pressure continues to grow. The bill’s margin for passage is tight, and only a few votes can make a difference.

Please call on your U.S. representative and senators to say “no” to deep cuts to food assistance and health care. Ask them to focus instead on legislation that advances tax equity and meets essential health and nutrition needs in our communities.

Arise staff union, leadership celebrate ratification of new contract

By Whitney Washington, communications associate

Alabama Arise Workers United (AAWU), Arise’s staff union represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), unanimously ratified its first contract in May. This was an exciting development after nearly a year of bargaining negotiations between CWA and Arise leadership. The process began after Arise leadership voluntarily recognized AAWU in 2024.

This contract locks in many benefits that Arise already provided staff. It also includes some powerful enhancements to those benefits. These include pay raises, 20 weeks of paid parental leave and an increase in paid time off.

Arise leadership has built an incredible organization beloved by members and staff alike. This contract protects so much of what is already great about Arise for the future.

What does this mean for you, an Arise member? It means our staff can stay healthy and protected as we fight for those same rights for other Alabamians. It also makes us better advocates, because many of us now have a stronger understanding of the labor movement. As Arise continues to support efforts to build worker power, it’s essential that we support organized labor.

We also hope this news encourages more of our members to consider what unionizing their workplaces could look like. Unions are one of the most effective ways to build power for regular workers – which is most of us.

Arise may not be the typical workplace that comes to mind when you think of organized labor, but let that be an inspiration. Starting a union doesn’t mean you hate your job or your boss. It just means you want more of a voice in your workplace.

Union members ratified our contract unanimously, and we have received nothing but support from Arise leadership. This agreement is just Arise’s next step in continuing to advocate for working people.

Meet Matt Okarmus, our comms multitasker

By Whitney Washington, communications associate

Since 2018, Matt Okarmus has served as a communications associate at Alabama Arise. Like many other staff, Matt did not begin his career in advocacy. 

After graduating from Auburn University with a journalism degree, he spent eight years in the newspaper industry, working at the Montgomery Advertiser and the Opelika-Auburn News.

Eventually, though, Matt felt the need to look for a change. He consulted his wife, a longtime nonprofit professional. 

“My wife had spent years in nonprofit work, and it felt like it would be more rewarding and fulfilling to pursue that path,” he said.

But Matt still has a soft spot for his former career.

“Knowing [journalism] wasn’t for me makes me have even more respect for all those who are involved in providing the news,” he said.

As a communications associate, Matt is responsible for producing videos, assisting with media response and ensuring Arise’s communications team stays connected with our policy and organizing teams. He also serves on the Communications Advisory Committee for the State Priorities Partnership (SPP). Arise was a founding member of SPP, a nationwide network of more than 40 groups advocating for state policies to reduce poverty.

One of Matt’s biggest responsibilities is designing the newsletter you’re reading right now (both the print and digital versions).

“I genuinely like looking at the puzzle-piece shifting of getting items to fit and pack them nice and neat and in a way that anyone who’s reading it doesn’t find it hard to do so,” he said about assembling the newsletter. 

“I feel proud when I see something I’ve worked on out in public and people are looking at it,” he said. “Sometimes in comms work, we feel a bit siloed to our computers, and once we’re done with one project, another one immediately comes along.”

‘The fight continues’

When asked to describe this year’s legislative session in three words, Matt responded simply: “The fight continues.” And to prepare for that fight, he makes sure to find ways to care for himself.

“That mindset was really solidified after my daughter was born. If I’m not taking care of myself, I’m not doing my best job of taking care of her,” he said.

“She can really bring me back to Earth sometimes. If I’m talking about policy issues too much, I can go to her and talk about Disney princesses and Paw Patrol characters instead.”

In Matt’s seven years at Arise, he has seen a lot of changes. Most recently, the staff union ratified its first contract.

“I was intimidated at first, because I had only seen negative things about unions in movies and TV shows,” he said. “But everyone – not just from the union side but from Arise as well – has been incredible about working together and finding common ground.” 

Whether through editing and publishing fact sheets or recording video at Arise events, Matt has been able to connect with and learn from Arise’s members, who have provided valuable insight.

“I was humbled quickly about how knowledgeable and passionate our members are,” he said. “My biggest lesson has been to really lean in to what members are saying and realize a lot of them have been fighting the good fight for years.” 

Matt encourages members to continue to engage with Arise, in any way they can.

“Show up to an event!” he said. “It doesn’t have to be in person. We’ve transitioned to having a lot of virtual sessions, so there are plenty of places to interact with the Arise staff and fellow supporters.”

A big ugly bill for billionaires

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

The budget legislation that the U.S. House advanced before Memorial Day (the “Big, Beautiful Bill… for Billionaires”) is awful. It would undo progress we have made together over many decades of work.

The good news: The original legislation put forth was even worse. Your advocacy, calls and public actions helped block some terrible policies from moving forward.

More good news: This bill still faces opposition in the Senate, and we have the chance to stall or significantly reduce these harmful cuts. Our actions during June could make a difference in the future of our country for decades to come.

We will provide more ways you can engage in conversations about what these cuts could mean for you and your community over the coming month, as we expect the Senate to vote on this bill by July 4.

By standing together, we can help protect economic security for all Alabamians and future generations.

Subscribe to help build our movement!

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

If you’re like me, you probably have a few monthly subscriptions. You can pay $15 to watch your favorite TV shows or $17 to stream your favorite music. There are also some wacky subscriptions like a regular delivery of socks, coffee beans or pet toys!

We thank you for giving to Alabama Arise, too. You just helped us wrap another successful legislative session. And our work continues: This summer, we’ll be all over the state connecting with people like you!

Will you also “subscribe” to Arise to build a more inclusive Alabama with a monthly gift? Knowing we can depend on your recurring gift will help us plan for the long term and work every day on the goals that members like you set. Of course, we’ll keep you updated on your gift’s impact through things like this very newsletter.

If you already give monthly, thank you. If you’re ready to start, visit alarise.org/donate. Be sure to check the box that says “make my gift recurring.” We also have information about monthly bank transfers.

Thank you again for your continued partnership. If you have any questions, please email me at jacob@alarise.org. I would love to hear from you!

Welcome, Bernadette and Tamela!

Alabama Arise is thrilled to welcome two new staff members to our organizing team!

Bernadette Allen joined Alabama Arise in May 2025 as the southwest Alabama organizer. She is a Mobile native who graduated from Murphy High School and continued her studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, La. She completed her B.A. degree in behavioral science at Columbia College in Columbia, S.C., and her M.S. degree in human services at Walden University in Minneapolis, Minn.

Bernadette is very active in the Mobile community. She is a member of the Mobile Branch of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and the Connection and Social Action Committee in the Delta Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., where she served as the coordinator in 2024. She also is the volunteer chairman on the executive board for Stand Up Mobile, a nonpartisan voter education and advocacy organization.

Tamela Glover joined Alabama Arise in May 2025 as a north Alabama organizer. She is a Selma native and proud Alabama A&M University graduate. Her story is rooted in the legacy of those who marched, fought and sacrificed for freedom. Growing up, she heard stories of Bloody Sunday from those who lived it. Those stories planted the seeds of service and were watered by her parents, who have spent more than 30 years in ministry.

Tam brings passion, strategy and faith to the fight for a more just Alabama. She is pursuing an MPA degree in law and policy and is committed to helping shape systems that truly serve everyone, especially those who were historically disengaged. A proud wife and mama of three, Tam is doing this work with her babies in mind, determined to help build a world in which the next generation can thrive.

Members support tax justice, child nutrition during Arise Legislative Day

More than 200 Alabama Arise supporters packed the State House in Montgomery for our 2025 Legislative Day on March 20. Attendees urged their lawmakers to reduce the state grocery tax and expand access to no-cost school breakfast in public schools.

HB 177: A case study in Alabama Arise advocacy

By Whitney Washington, communications associate

 

Alabama Arise successfully leaped into action this year to defend health coverage for thousands of children. In February 2025, Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, introduced HB 177, which would have required that a child covered by Medicaid be placed on a non-custodial parent’s employer-provided health insurance when available, regardless of whether the parent could afford it. The bill also would have required Alabama Medicaid to sue parents who did not do so for payments made on the child’s behalf. Arise went into action.

Policy analysis: Looking for the devil in the details

After reading HB 177’s worrisome language, Arise senior policy analyst Carol Gundlach and other staff got to work on assessing its repercussions. As written, HB 177 would have:

• Required Alabama Medicaid to sue many parents.
• Put many parents who were already struggling into medical debt.
• Forced some victims of domestic violence into contact with their abusers.

Lawmakers turn to Arise for answers

On Feb. 19, the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee debated HB 177. Arise’s Robyn Hyden spoke in opposition.

“One example … is a friend [whose] take-home pay is $600 a week. … So she could opt in to pay for health insurance through her employer, [but] it would take more than one-third of her paycheck,” she said.

Many committee members raised questions about the bill’s potential harms. Acting committee chair Rep. Chris Blackshear, R-Phenix City, urged the sponsor to collaborate with Arise regarding our concerns.

Our members take action

At Cover Alabama’s advocacy day, Irondale resident Angelica McCain – equipped and encouraged by Arise – shared her story of being a single mother in the health coverage gap.

“There are so many people that benefit from Medicaid who don’t fit the stereotype,” McCain said. “We live in rural Alabama, and we live in cities. We’re white, Black, it doesn’t matter. They’re people like me, just trying to do our best for our kids.”

Later that day, she spoke directly to Robbins to explain how HB 177 would harm her family. In all, nearly 100 of our advocates visited their lawmakers that day.

Harm mitigation: Advocating for amendments

Arise continued speaking with legislators about HB 177. Robbins ultimately proposed a substitute version that removed some of the bill’s most harmful impacts. The substitute added an affordability test and clarified that the insurance requirements would not apply to custodial parents.

A quiet but mighty win

Sometimes a legislative win is obvious: A good bill is enacted into law. Other times, it looks more like stopping a bad bill or mitigating the harm it would cause. In the case of HB 177, Arise identified a bill that would have hurt vulnerable Alabamians. Then we successfully advocated to make it less harmful – and ultimately, the bill died.

This is just one example of the kind of critical legislative victories that Arise regularly secures for families across Alabama. Your advocacy and support of our work makes it all possible!

Federal Medicaid, SNAP threats imperil Alabamians

By Chris Sanders, communications director

Lawmakers should not hurt people who are struggling to help people who are already doing well. But Congress is considering cuts to health coverage, food assistance and other human services that would do exactly that. These proposals would increase hunger and hardship for hundreds of thousands of Alabamians.

The U.S. House last month approved a budget resolution that could set the stage for more than $1 trillion of cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade. Congressional leaders are weighing these cuts to offset the cost of renewing huge tax breaks for wealthy people. Among those breaks are higher estate tax exemptions and a cut to the top marginal income tax rate.

The contrast is stark. The amount of potential Medicaid and SNAP cuts in the House resolution would be roughly equal to the cost of extending tax breaks for just the wealthiest 1% of households, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found.

These funding cuts would increase suffering across Alabama. As many as 1 in 5 Alabamians enrolled in Medicaid could lose coverage due to cuts or work reporting requirements, CBPP estimated. Many other people could see SNAP assistance reduced or eliminated. Other potential targets include school meals, student loan assistance and tax credits for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

“Our lawmakers should reject harmful service cuts for working people and tax giveaways to wealthy households,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “They should focus instead on building an economy that works for everyone in Alabama and across our country.”

Arise is speaking out against harmful cuts

The proposed cuts are not a done deal. The House and Senate still must agree on an identical budget resolution. After that, lawmakers would have to identify specific cuts to meet the resolution’s numerical targets. Then the House and Senate would have to pass budget legislation to enact those cuts.

Arise and our partners have spoken out repeatedly against these harmful proposals. We joined 55 other groups in January to urge Alabama’s congressional delegation to reject additional tax breaks for wealthy households. The joint letter asked Congress to provide tax reductions for working families instead by expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. Arise also joined 111 groups in February in another letter urging Alabama’s delegation to reject cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

Read the January letter here and the February letter here.

Arise and our members will continue opposing service cuts that would hurt families who struggle to make ends meet. As we wrote to Congress in January: “Americans want you to meet the moment and put the future and well-being of all of us ahead of tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected.”

Arise Legislative Day is Thursday, March 20!

By Matt Okarmus, communications associate

Your voice matters! Make plans now to speak up with us for a better Alabama for all. Join us at Arise’s 2025 Legislative Day on Thursday, March 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the State House in Montgomery.

Legislative Day is an annual opportunity for Arise members and friends to meet their lawmakers and make the case for policy changes to improve the lives of everyday Alabamians.

Arise staff will announce the policy focus of Legislative Day closer to the date. In the meantime, check below for more on what we’re working on at the State House this year. And subscribe to our email list for updates throughout the session.

Visit this page for more information. We look forward to seeing you there!

Maternal health, paid leave are early highlights in Alabama’s 2025 legislative session

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst

Alabama Arise is advocating successfully to advance several good bills early in the Legislature’s 2025 regular session. Our members are speaking out and getting results on maternal health care access, paid parental leave and other issues.

The session began Feb. 4 and likely will end in mid-May. Here is an overview of Arise’s advocacy at the State House this year.

Maternal and infant health care

Both the House and Senate have voted overwhelmingly for legislation to improve Medicaid access for pregnant women. HB 89 by Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, and SB 102 by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, would use a process known as presumptive eligibility to streamline Medicaid enrollment for eligible women, allowing them to get health care earlier in their pregnancies.

We also have seen early momentum for bipartisan bills to ensure paid parental leave for teachers and state employees. HB 327 by Rep. Ginny Shavers, R-Leesburg, and SB 199 by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, would provide eight weeks of paid leave for mothers and two weeks for fathers. The leave would apply to childbirth, adoption or miscarriage. Gov. Kay Ivey prioritized this policy in her State of the State address, and Arise strongly supports it.

Arise also supports bills to allow nursing mothers an exemption from jury duty and to improve Medicaid coverage for mothers facing postpartum depression. We back legislation to allow some women convicted of crimes to serve supervised probation during and immediately after pregnancy. And we support requiring employers to allow breaks for nursing mothers to express breast milk.

Adequate state budgets and public transportation

Medicaid expansion would help make health coverage affordable for all Alabamians, and it remains a top Arise budget priority. We also oppose legislation to authorize junk health plans that could deny coverage for people with preexisting conditions. And we oppose federal efforts to slash Medicaid and food assistance to fund tax breaks for wealthy households

Arise is advocating for state funding to allow all public schools to provide universal free breakfast to every student if they choose. We are seeking to ensure ongoing support for Summer EBT benefits for more than 500,000 Alabama children, which our members’ advocacy secured last year. And we are working with other advocates to reform Alabama’s school funding formula, ensuring equitable public education for all students.

Arise was instrumental in creating state trust funds for public transportation and affordable housing. We are working with legislators on multiple possibilities to support these services.

Reforming Alabama’s upside-down tax system

Alabama reduced its state sales tax on groceries from 4% to 3% in 2023. Reducing the grocery tax further and ultimately eliminating it remains an important Arise goal. This may require amending the original legislation to phase in the next reduction sooner.

Arise supports good bills to end the state sales tax on infant formula, diapers and women’s hygiene needs. And we are closely monitoring the CHOOSE Act’s impact on education funding. Arise opposed the 2024 law, which will divert at least $100 million annually away from public schools and toward private schools and homeschooling.

Voting rights, criminal justice reform and death penalty reform

Voting is a fundamental way for people to make their voices heard. Arise opposes efforts to make it harder for people to exercise their right to vote. We support legislation to allow early voting, reduce barriers to absentee voting, and remove barriers to voting rights restoration for disenfranchised Alabamians.

Reforming criminal justice policies, including the death penalty, has been an Arise priority for many years. We are working to pass legislation improving the state’s broken parole system. We also back efforts to apply Alabama’s ban on judicial overrides of jury sentencing decisions in capital cases retroactively.

Workers’ rights and racial justice

Arise is committed to supporting safe workplaces and workers’ rights to organize. We support legislation allowing Alabama to recapture tax incentives from companies that violate child labor laws. We also support a bill to end state restrictions on local minimum wage increases. And we oppose legislation making it harder for people to receive unemployment insurance benefits after they lose their job.

The 2024 federal election has influenced state legislative priorities. Numerous state bills are targeting people without immigration documents and attacking efforts to advance racial equity and inclusion. Arise stands with our partners and friends in opposition to harmful bills in these areas.

‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

Mr. Rogers said his mother told him the quote above when things he saw on the news frightened him. 

We are in scary times, to say the least. Congress is advancing a billionaires-first budget that could gut Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, TANF, public health and school meals. Our president is pushing the boundaries of executive authority and challenging the rule of law. Billionaires are vilifying people who access public benefits and calling the core functions of government into question.

Immigrant, Black and LGBTQ friends and neighbors are being pushed into the shadows as they are attacked and harassed. Some are seeing their competence or their very right to exist in our country or in their workplaces questioned.

But our history is not entirely written yet. The outcomes will be determined by those who show up, speak out, march in the streets and dissent.

When I look around and see all the Arise members and allies standing together to speak out, I see the helpers. Thank you for standing with us to help hold the line for our democracy and for an inclusive, fair and free society.

Advocating to Cover Alabama

By Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director

Alabama Arise and Cover Alabama joined with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network to host a Medicaid Expansion Advocacy Day on Feb. 25 in Montgomery. Nearly 100 passionate supporters came to the State House to speak out in defense of Medicaid and the urgent need to close Alabama’s health coverage gap.

As federal threats to Medicaid persist, advocates stressed that expansion is essential both to cover more people and to protect against harmful cuts. Faith leaders, business owners and individuals living in the coverage gap shared powerful personal stories. Many described the devastation of losing Medicaid coverage and falling into the gap – earning too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid but too little to receive tax credits for private coverage.

These testimonies highlighted the urgent need for expansion to ensure everyone has access to care. Thank you to everyone who showed up, spoke out and made a difference. Your voices matter, and we are making progress together.

McKenzie Burton wants to get a cup of coffee with you

By Whitney Washington, communications associate

Alabama Arise’s supporters and members are used to seeing a handful of friendly faces from the staff regularly. They may see organizers speaking at listening sessions or policy analysts giving TV interviews.

But many other staff members are also integral to realizing Arise’s mission. One is someone whose name you may recognize, but not her face: McKenzie Burton, an Arise development associate since October 2021.

McKenzie’s journey to Arise started after graduating from the University of Georgia and serving as a youth minister and outreach coordinator for an Episcopal Church in New York.

“I loved the work, and doing direct service work made me realize that what I really wanted was to help solve the root of the problems I was seeing,” she said.

After stints working for political campaigns, McKenzie found herself drawn to policy work.

“Electing the right people is important, but we must hold our officials accountable to doing the right thing once they are in office,” she said. “I feel lucky to have found a home in this journey at Alabama Arise. Arise is doing some of the toughest policy work in one of the toughest states, making our quest all the more crucial for everyday people.”

‘I learn every day from our members’

As a development associate, McKenzie works to recruit and nurture Arise members. She leads fundraising campaigns, membership drives and more. After working directly with Arise members for more than three years, she’s learned quite a bit from them.

“This work is hard, and I learn every day from our members what it looks like to stay focused and persistent in a way that is sustainable for yourself and the organization long-term. I also admire the dedication to collective organizing,” she said.

McKenzie said she loves engaging with members, and encourages them to reach out directly to her.

“Getting to know our members and helping to connect them to the pieces of the work they care most about is my favorite part of my job,” she said. “Reach out to grab a cup of coffee with me!”

‘A girl can dream’

Arise’s work is difficult, but McKenzie has high hopes for the future.

“I would love to see us begin to really stretch our wings and reach people in the state that we haven’t been able to reach before and build a truly diverse and reflective membership base,” she said. “My goal in this work is always to work myself out of a job! Maybe in 30 years, we will have built a truly responsive, just state with policies that set us all up for success. A girl can dream.”

McKenzie has accomplished a lot in her time as development associate. But one of her proudest moments came outside that role, when she participated in the creation of Alabama Arise Workers United.

“I was really proud to have helped organize our staff union, and even prouder to be working for an organization that has voluntarily recognized our union and been supportive of a democratic workplace,” she said.

McKenzie said she balances the trying work of advocacy with intentional self-care.

“I try to not take work home. Leave emotional space for true decompression and connection with my friends and family, whether that’s over a movie, at a restaurant, or visiting out-of-town friends in their cities,” she said. “Nothing makes me feel more connected to myself and the world than quality time with my people.”

For those curious about how to support McKenzie and Arise’s work, she said it’s simple: Keep us growing.

“Continue to support the work, and bring your friends and family along with you,” she said. “I am only one person, and our staff is only 20 people. The more we grow our individual donations, the more we can focus on the work our members care most about, and the stronger our coalition’s voice is at the State House.”

Make the most of your membership

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

At Alabama Arise, we work to engage everyday people on policies that impact people with low incomes. Our collective voice is stronger together!

We’re in the middle of Alabama’s legislative session, which means your support is fueling our work at a critical time. Will you help us build momentum? Here are a few ideas:

• Visit alarise.org/donate to make a monthly or one-time gift.
• Share our social media posts and action alert emails with your friends and family.
• Join us at Arise Legislative Day in Montgomery on March 20.

As a member, you are a part of our network of more than 150 organizations and 1,500 individuals. You also can access benefits such as:

• The Daily News Digest, which compiles relevant news and opinions about Arise’s priorities.
• Weekly legislative updates during the session so that you always know what’s happening in Montgomery and how you can help.
• The opportunity to work directly with our staff to advocate for the causes you care about most.

If you have any questions, reach out to me at jacob@alarise.org. Thank you for joining Arise in our work!

Congratulations, Adam!

Arise’s Adam Keller accepted a new position last month as our worker power campaign director. In this role, he will build support for worker-led union organizing unions and worker-led organizing, creating community support outside plants to sustain worker organizing inside them.

Adam still will be our organizing team contact in northeast Alabama during a brief transition period. We hope to hire and announce two new organizers soon. Visit alarise.org/employment for more on any future job opportunities.

The federal policy fights and opportunities ahead for Alabama Arise

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst

Alabama Arise and our members have worked for more than 35 years to push for policies that improve the lives of people struggling to make ends meet. We have remained steadfast in this mission and our values, and we will continue that commitment in the coming years.

Arise is deeply concerned about the prospect of harmful federal tax and budget changes next year. And we are working closely with national allies and those in other states to educate and advocate on these issues. We’ll be calling on you, our members and partners, to help us protect Alabamians with low incomes. We will be responding to numerous federal issues in 2025. These include:

Tax cuts for the wealthiest households

Federal tax cuts passed in 2017 benefited wealthy people and highly profitable corporations at the expense of revenue for essential services like public education and health care. We expect Congress to move quickly to try to renew these skewed tax giveaways to the wealthiest households and corporations. We also are concerned that targeted tax credits for people with low incomes, including the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, might be cut to offset the cost of tax cuts for wealthy households.

Federal funding cuts for human services

Arise and our partners expect Congress will try to freeze or reduce spending on services that help working people, in an effort to offset the cost of tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans. Services at risk could include education services for struggling students, affordable housing and public transportation. Congress also could reduce state grants under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides income and work supports for people with extremely low incomes.

We also expect to see proposals to cut food aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and health coverage under Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (known as ALL Kids in Alabama) and the Affordable Care Act. We are particularly worried about the possibility of state block grants or privatization of health care programs.

Arise expects to fight against harmful new work reporting requirements for participants in Medicaid, SNAP, affordable housing and similar programs. These would result in many costly paperwork barriers and arbitrary denials for people eligible for these services.

Attacks on undocumented immigrants

Efforts to deport large numbers of undocumented immigrants likely would disproportionately hurt Hispanic communities and result in human rights abuses. These initiatives also likely would drive up the price of goods and services for everyone. The first Trump administration tried to make it easier to deport people who participated in programs like Medicaid or SNAP. We anticipate another effort to impose a similar “public charge” rule.

Harmful long-term structural changes

Further down the road, we are watching for potential harmful changes to SSI disability cash assistance. We also are concerned about potential proposals to privatize Social Security and to slash Medicaid and SNAP by turning them into block-grant programs or significantly cutting federal funding.

What we can do together

The federal road ahead will not be easy for Alabamians with low incomes. But we have survived serious policy threats before, and we can again, as long as we all work together. It is important to remember a few key strengths that we have:

• Congress is deeply divided, especially in the House. Some things that require congressional action may be hard to pass.
• Federal administrative rule changes are a slow and tedious process. Public comments can play a major role in slowing or stopping harmful regulations.
• Equitable tax policy and adequate budgets for human services are broadly popular. Public opinion matters and can make a real difference.

Arise pledges to help our members stay informed with fact sheets, blog posts and other informative materials. We will share timely action alerts to help our supporters speak out to elected officials on issues that matter to working families. And we will support immigrants, people of color, low-income communities and other Alabamians who are at risk of policy harm.

We are stronger together. Arise’s coalition has a decades-long track record of credibility and success. And with your ongoing advocacy and support, we will continue advancing our shared vision of a better Alabama for all.

Alabama Arise’s 2025 priorities — and changes for 2026

By Chris Sanders, communications director

More than 450 members voted to affirm Alabama Arise’s 2025 legislative priorities after this fall’s Annual Meeting:

• Adequate state budgets, including Medicaid expansion and equitable public school funding for all students
• Tax reform, including untaxing groceries
• Voting rights
• Criminal justice reform
• Maternal and infant health care
• Public transportation
• Death penalty reform

Arise’s board also voted in November to approve a new approach to member voting on legislative priorities for 2026. This approach, starting in fall 2025, will help us better commit to multiyear advocacy on the issues that matter most to our members. And it will better reflect the depth and breadth of Arise’s work. (See the next story below or read this blog post for details.)

See the graphic above or read this post for more details on our 2025 legislative priorities. And email organizing director Presdelane Harris at pres@alarise.org to set up an issue preview event in your area ahead of the Legislature’s 2025 regular session.

A new year, a new issue selection process for Alabama Arise

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

From our founding, Alabama Arise has been strongly committed to member leadership. Directly impacted communities, our member organizations and individuals guide and decide our policy agenda.

Over the years, the way we select this agenda has changed as our work has evolved and as times change. Now we are proposing another change.

During our November board retreat, the Arise board voted to adjust the way we select our legislative agenda in 2025. This change will not go into effect until we go through issue selection next summer. We will ask you, our members, to approve this new agenda format at next year’s Annual Meeting.

What will change

We will ask members in 2025 to adopt a multiyear, broad strategic priority agenda for four years (2026-29). The strategic priorities will roughly mirror our current priority issues, but they will include multiple policy approaches under each umbrella. The seven broad issues are:

1. Adequate state budgets
2. Health equity
3. Hunger relief
4. Inclusive democracy
5. Justice reform
6. Tax reform
7. Worker power

In recent years, Arise has advocated in all of these areas. But several of these topics were rolled under “adequate state budgets,” with no way for members to provide input or rank our priorities in these areas. Health equity, hunger relief and worker power now reflect huge areas of work for Arise that did not previously appear on our priority agenda in any clear way.

At the same time, other categories are much broader than they appear. Under the existing categories of voting rights and criminal justice reform, for example, we work on multiple bills. By renaming our categories of work using broader, values-based framing, we can include and adjust our agenda much more flexibly.

You may notice that specific issues that appear on our current agenda, like death penalty reform and criminal justice reform, will be combined in this new format. Public transportation will roll under “adequate state budgets” along with affordable housing, child care and public education – all budget priorities where we have consistently advocated for further investment. Voting rights will roll into a broader category called “inclusive democracy,” which also may include issues related to racial equity and inclusion, free speech and immigration policies.

What will stay the same

Each year, we still will ask you to propose new pieces of legislation to adopt on our agenda under these broad category headings.

We still will ask you to rank the legislative priorities under each broad heading, much in the same way we did member voting this year.

And we still will ask member groups to present pieces of legislation or strategic approaches that they want us to adopt on our agenda.

If you see a broad category of work that is not reflected here that you would like to see added to Arise’s agenda, we will have a process for that as well. That process will involve a research period to assess our capacity and strategic approach more broadly. Arise staff will look into how the category may fit in with our other areas of work and report back to our membership about whether we think we strategically can undertake a new broad issue area.

Please reach out to me or our organizing team with questions or concerns about this new format. Our goal here is to include more voices in selecting Arise’s agenda, and to lift up more of the policies that you, our members, have said you value.

Must-haves for any Medicaid expansion plan

By Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama is publicizing a plan called ALLHealth to close Alabama’s health coverage gap. We expect the plan would use Medicaid expansion dollars to buy private insurance for many eligible Alabamians, much as ALL Kids provides children with private coverage on a sliding cost scale.

Alabama Arise is tracking this plan closely with our Cover Alabama coalition partners and will assess it as more details become public. Arise commits to our members that we will only support a plan that provides quality insurance to everyone in the health coverage gap. Read the graphic below or click here for our list of must-haves for any plan to close the gap.

Spreading the word about Medicaid expansion in Alabama

Alabama Arise’s Cover Alabama campaign joined the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network in November to unveil a billboard urging Medicaid expansion to help hospitals stay open. The billboard is by Interstate 85 in Montgomery near Jackson Hospital, one of many Alabama hospitals that would benefit from closing the health coverage gap. Read more about the billboard campaign here.

Join Alabama Arise this holiday season!

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

In this season of generosity, we can’t forget all of the Alabamians struggling to make ends meet because of bad policies. At Alabama Arise, we take our cue from you, our members, to build a better future. Together, we’re focused on advocacy for a more just and prosperous state.

More than 15% of our financial support comes from members like you. And your giving ensures Arise focuses on the issues you care about, such as access to health care and an inclusive democracy.

Will you join us in building a better Alabama? Join or renew your membership with a gift! There are many ways to give:

• Make a one-time or monthly gift online.
• Mail a check to P.O. Box 1188, Montgomery, AL 36101.
• Provide a gift of stock.
• Make a gift from an IRA, 401(k) or other tax-deferred savings account.
• Leave a gift in your will.
• Give a gift membership to someone.

Once you’ve given, invite your friends, family and network to join you in making a difference!

If you have any questions or would like more information about how to make a gift, email my colleague McKenzie Burton at mckenzie@alarise.org. Thank you for your generosity this holiday season.

Arise staff make an Impact at SPP conference

Alabama Arise staff met and learned from advocates from across the country at the State Priorities Partnership (SPP) Impact Conference in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 4-6, 2024. Arise was a founding member of the SPP network, which has grown to include more than 40 independent, nonprofit research and policy organizations nationwide. Below are a few photos from the event.

A note on this year’s Annual Meeting voting

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

Alabama Arise strives to center the experiences and needs of low-income and working-class members in our work. We invite our members to participate in listening sessions, propose new legislative priorities and vote to set our legislative agenda during our Annual Meeting each fall.

It’s important that you, our members, drive and determine our legislative priorities. When member groups propose new issues and make the case at our annual membership meeting for them to join our agenda, participants have to make hard choices about which issues you think matter the most.

But this year, we didn’t receive any new proposed legislative priorities to add to our agenda. Rather, several groups have proposed adding new strategies under our existing priorities.

We still value your feedback and participation in setting this agenda. But this year’s voting will look a bit different. During the Annual Meeting, our staff will update you on the strategies and bills we have pursued under each of our current legislative priorities, which also are outlined in this month’s newsletter.

We will send you an electronic ballot to endorse the current legislative agenda. We’ll also ask you to rank the individual bills and strategies under each issue that you would like to see Arise prioritize in our collective advocacy.

Our agenda is stronger with your participation. Thank you for all the time and experience you share with us to shape our agenda and make our vision a reality.

Annual Meeting to chart Arise’s course for 2025

By Matt Okarmus, communications associate

Grassroots democracy will be on display when Alabama Arise members help shape our 2025 legislative priorities at our Annual Meeting on Saturday, Sept. 28. There will be options to meet both in person and online via Zoom.

As a member, you have the power to select how we pursue our 2025 legislative priorities. We have no new proposed priorities this year, but members will rank proposed strategies under each existing priority. Members also will vote on a proposed bylaw change. 

Below, you’ll find more information on the Annual Meeting. We will be meeting again at the Legacy Annex in Montgomery. You’ll also see our policy staff’s overviews of Arise’s legislative priorities, including our two permanent priorities: adequate state budgets and tax reform.

We hope you join us as we gather to renew our shared commitment to building a better Alabama for all!

Things to know for our Annual Meeting

When:

Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where:

This is a hybrid event with options to attend in person as well as remotely via Zoom. The in-person meeting will be at The Legacy Annex, 115 Coosa St., Montgomery, AL 36104. This is the former site of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum. Visit alarise.org/annualmeeting2024 to find more details and registration information. There is no cost to attend, though donations are welcome.

Proposed bylaw change:

Arise members will be asked to vote on the following bylaw change:

Proposed revision: “All members of the Board of Directors shall serve a term of three years and terms will be staggered. Successive terms are permitted.”

Current language: “All members of the Board of Directors shall serve a term of three years and terms will be staggered. One successive term is permitted. After a one-year absence a person would be eligible to serve again.”

For more information:

If you have any questions, call 334-832-9060 or email info@alarise.org.

Permanent Arise legislative priorities

Adequate state budgets

We hear it too often at the Legislature: “It’s a bad budget year. Revenues are down.” So the last few years have been a pleasant relief as revenue growth has allowed greater budget flexibility.

But with more opportunities to invest in essential services also comes more potential to reroute money in harmful ways. Alabama Arise will advocate for legislators to choose a positive path when writing the 2026 budgets.

The Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget saw a relatively small revenue increase this year. ETF receipts grew 1.7%, or $136 million, over last year’s record. This growth was enough to give legislators more flexibility in crafting an education budget, but it was insufficient to allow another 1-cent reduction in the state grocery tax – an Arise priority. In a positive note, lawmakers allocated the administrative funding needed to provide Summer EBT nutrition benefits for more than 500,000 Alabama children starting in summer 2025.

The Legislature unfortunately used ETF flexibility in a bad way in 2024 by passing the CHOOSE Act. This law will divert at least $100 million annually away from our public schools and toward private schools and homeschooling. And lawmakers could increase that amount significantly in future years.

The General Fund (GF) budget, which funds Medicaid and other non-education services, saw 7.6% revenue growth this year, or $194 million. But this growth has been spurred primarily by high interest rates on state deposits. Those returns could decline if the Federal Reserve reduces interest rates this fall.

Despite healthier revenue growth this year, decades of underfunded GF services have created many unmet needs. In July and August budget hearings, GF agency leaders explained some of those needs:

• The Department of Corrections, under federal order to hire more guards, will not meet a court-ordered deadline to make those hires.
• Alabama’s turnover rate for child welfare workers exceeds 50% per year. The Department of Human Resources (DHR) also lacks essential mental health services for children and teens in its care.
• Our state needs significantly more funding for crisis services, including crisis centers and teams. The Department of Mental Health also noted increased demand for the 988 suicide prevention hotline. Grace Presbyterian Church, an Arise member group in Tuscaloosa, has urged us to prioritize efforts to secure dedicated state funding for mental health services provided by the 988 hotline next year.
• The Department of Public Health will need an additional $34 million for ALL Kids health insurance to cover children disenrolled from Medicaid during its recent “unwinding.”

Alabama lawmakers will confront all these needs and more in 2025. Arise will be there to urge them to meet the critical needs of Alabamians and the agencies that serve them.

Tax reform

Alabama’s failure to fund essential public services is a direct consequence of our upside-down tax system. This system requires the most from those least able to pay. It gives tax breaks to wealthy households and fails to raise the revenue we need.

In 2023 and 2024, the Legislature passed tax cuts pulling as much as $558 million out of the education budget alone. Arise member group Jobs to Move America has urged us to prioritize legislation next year to claw back tax incentives from companies that violate child labor laws.

One of the most egregious tax giveaways this year was the CHOOSE Act. This law will provide at least $100 million a year for private schools and homeschooling – money taken directly from our public schools. Meanwhile, the state grocery tax remains stuck at 3% because annual education revenue growth did not meet the statutorily required 3.5% to reduce it by another cent this year.

Arise has long supported a replacement for the grocery tax that also would boost school funding. Capping or eliminating the federal income tax deduction would allow us to remove the state sales tax on groceries. It also would make our state’s tax system fairer and increase funding for our public schools.

Alabama legislators may have to include tax reform as they discuss proposals to reweigh our per-pupil education funding formula to benefit schools, students and communities with the greatest needs. Arise is an active participant in these discussions, and we will share more information as it becomes available.

Compiled by Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst

Current Arise legislative priorities and strategies

Criminal justice reform

Arise was happy to partner with allies to improve Alabama’s criminal justice system this year with the passage of HB 275 by Rep. Cynthia Almond, R-Tuscaloosa. This law will strengthen Alabama’s indigent defense system so it can better serve more Alabamians with low incomes.

Other criminal justice reform legislation made progress through the Legislature before falling short during the 2024 session. That included HB 29 by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa. This “second chance” bill would have reformed the state’s Habitual Felony Offender Act, commonly referred to as the “three-strikes” law. Arise was encouraged to see a House committee approve the bill this year. We expect to see and support similar legislation next year.

In 2023, Arise expanded our scope of work in this area to include efforts to reform Alabama’s felony murder law. Under this law, a person can be convicted of first-degree murder even if they did not intend to or did not actually kill anyone. A disproportionate share of people convicted under felony murder laws are people of color, research from several states has found.

England filed HB 32 to clarify the circumstances under which felony murder may be charged and to make other related changes. HB 32 stalled after a public hearing this year, but we expect to see and support similar legislation next year.

Arise member group Greater Birmingham Ministries has urged us to prioritize parole reform legislation in our reform work next year. This legislation would establish formal criteria for parole decisions and allow applicants to attend hearings in person or by video. The bill also would require the parole board to cite explicit reasons for not releasing incarcerated people who have fulfilled certain legal requirements.

Death penalty reform

Lawmakers in 2024 debated legislation to address Alabama’s unjust death penalty laws. Alabama is one of only two states to permit the issuance of death sentences via non-unanimous jury sentencing decisions. 

Arise this year supported SB 182 by Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, which would have aligned the state with the national trend of requiring a unanimous jury verdict prior to imposing the death penalty. Unfortunately, this bill did not move out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Similarly, the House Judiciary Committee vigorously debated HB 27 by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, but failed to move it to the full House. The bill would have applied the state’s ban on judicial override in capital cases retroactively.

This ban forbids judges from imposing a death sentence when the jury recommends a lesser sentence. Unfortunately, when passed in 2017, the law didn’t apply to people already on death row. That has left more than 30 people on Alabama’s death row who received a death sentence against their jury’s will. We hope to see both pieces of legislation reintroduced and considered next year.

Maternal and infant health care

Arise’s work to improve maternal and infant health outcomes for Alabama moms amped up after members added this priority to our agenda in 2024. The needs are vast: Alabama consistently ranks near the bottom for maternal mortality, preterm birth rate and infant mortality. And Black mothers are twice as likely to face these outcomes.

Unfortunately, general health care access perils are magnified during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Access to care before pregnancy has a direct connection to health outcomes for mothers and infants. Ensuring Alabamians can access health care early in their pregnancies increases the chance they can address any issues with preventive and less invasive procedures. Equally as compelling, the support a family receives during the postpartum period promotes stability in mental and overall health.

Arise this year supported HB 77 by Rep. Phillip Rigsby, R-Huntsville, a new law that increased the number of conditions for which newborn babies are screened. We also backed two paid parental leave bills that made progress. HB 309 by Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg, which as amended would have provided six weeks of leave for state employees, passed the House and won Senate committee approval. SB 305 by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, which as amended would have extended six weeks of leave to teachers, also received Senate committee approval.

Arise will keep advocating for Medicaid expansion and for paid family medical leave, including in cases of miscarriage or stillbirth. These policies would help prevent closures of maternity wards, provide a healthier start to pregnancies and provide greater comprehensive support during the postpartum period. The time is now to ensure healthier communities by investing in Alabama’s mothers and their families.

Public transportation

Public transportation is a vital public good. Adequate transit enables and enhances every aspect of life. Public transit empowers people to get to work, see their doctors, run to the grocery store, vote and stay connected. Inadequate transit is a persistent barrier for Alabamians with disabilities and for older Alabamians.

But Alabama hasn’t funded the Public Transportation Trust Fund since creating it almost a decade ago. That needs to change. The state leaves millions of federal matching dollars on the table every year because of failing to invest in transit. Every dollar of state money could get $1 in federal match for operations costs like driver salaries and $4 in match for capital improvements like buses.

Two good options exist for fixing this problem. One solution would be for the state to appropriate $50 million from the General Fund to improve transit systems. This would avoid reluctance to increase fees and license costs but wouldn’t provide a long-term fix.

The state also could fund public transit with a $5 surcharge for vehicle tags, either for all cars or for vehicles used in commerce. This option would provide a dedicated funding path but is a tougher legislative route because of reluctance to increase costs at the point of tag purchase.

Voting rights

Arise and advocacy partners this year fought SB 1 by Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, which poses a serious threat to voting rights in Alabama. Despite our efforts, SB 1 passed and will criminalize many efforts to assist voters with absentee voting. We will continue to support efforts to overturn SB 1 and to limit the harmful impact of this law.

Lawmakers considered but did not pass legislation to make absentee voting more equitable this year. HB 64 by Rep. Kenyatte Hassell, D-Montgomery, would have allowed voters to cure defects in absentee ballot affidavits when needed. Though this legislation ultimately did not make it out of the House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee, it was significant that a bill to improve voting access received committee discussion.

This year also saw continued efforts to improve the voting rights restoration process for people who previously lost their right to vote due to a felony conviction. A Senate committee approved SB 174 by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, but the full Senate did not vote on it. We look forward to working with the bill’s sponsors and other advocates to strategize ways to help get this legislation across the finish line next year.

Compiled by Mike Nicholson, senior policy analyst; Jennifer Harris, senior health policy advocate; and Dev Wakeley, worker policy advocate.

Pres Harris celebrates three decades of organizing and community involvement

By Whitney Washington, communications associate

When Presdelane Harris started at Alabama Arise as the phone organizer in summer 1994, she had no idea what the next 30 years had in store. She didn’t intend on being at Arise for long.

“Maybe doing this for a little while, maybe one or two years,” she said.

Pres makes it clear that no matter her journey to Arise, this is where she was meant to be.

“God placed me here. This is not where I ever thought I’d be,” she said.

At Auburn University at Montgomery, Pres majored in justice and public safety and later added a master’s degree in management from Troy University. She considered law school before getting plugged into Arise.

Pres has worn lots of hats since starting at Arise, having “just about every job” at the organization. From phone organizer and office manager to organizing director, where she has helped Arise’s membership grow to reach 53 of Alabama’s 67 counties, Pres has seen the evolution of not just Arise, but Alabama politics as a whole.

“The Legislature was actually a little more diverse then,” she said. “It didn’t feel like it does now.”

Alabama can be a trying place to work on Arise’s issues. What is it that’s kept Pres going? 

“The cumulative impact of seeing people get engaged and being excited,” she said. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you really do have to meet people where they are.”

“Our members are diverse in a lot of ways, but we all come together under our mission to advance policies to improve the lives of people marginalized by poverty,” Pres said. “When you’re talking to folks on the ground, people are just people.”

After 30 years at Arise, including 22 as the organizing director, Pres still has big dreams.  

“I would like us to grow our organizing team more,” she said. “The field is wide open.

While growing the number of organizers on staff is always a goal, deepening relationships is critical to Pres’ vision.

“The reason we have organizers on staff is to grow in depth as well as reach,” she said. 

Taking care of ourselves is a priority for many Arise staff, and Pres is no different. Her faith is essential to her work. 

“Living out my values is a way of taking care of myself. I take seriously the idea of being at peace,” she said. That peace grounds me when everything around is in chaos.”

Anyone who knows Pres knows that cruises are also a big part of her self-care practice. She typically takes two cruises a year with her family. Her next one will be to Costa Maya in Mexico in December.

As far as organizing work, Pres keeps her eye on new technology. From implementing our first database years ago to working on a new texting platform now, she’s always seeking out ways to engage new people into our mission.

“In two text banks, we sent 23,000 texts,” she said. “There was genuine interest. We’re always open to innovative ideas about engaging the most directly impacted folks.”

And what would she like to see in the next 30 years? 

“Thirty years from now, I’d like to see our mission having to change because we have fewer people who are marginalized by poverty,” Pres said. “Ideally, we’ll work ourselves out of a job.”

How Alabama can build an economy that works for workers

By Dev Wakeley, worker policy advocate

Working people – and the unions that workers form to build power together – have made enormous contributions to the well-being of all Americans. These contributions include overtime pay, a five-day workweek, child labor protections and workplace safety standards.

These advances didn’t come easily. Workers won them through strikes, pressure and solidarity. And the fight continues. In Alabama, workers fought this year against anti-union legislation and a measure to reduce child labor protections.

Low wages, substandard worker protections and miserly leave policies all contribute to the job quality problem. Policymakers also have failed to invest adequately in structural supports that would empower workers to better their situations.

We can move toward a better economy with better policy choices. Alabama lawmakers should remove workforce participation barriers through Medicaid expansion and stronger investments in child care, housing and public transportation. And employers should do their part by increasing wages, ensuring paid sick leave and parental leave, and ending hostility to workers’ efforts to unionize.

Policymakers and businesses should move beyond the low-road strategies that have Alabama spinning its wheels on improving quality of life for the people who keep the state running. By investing in a high-road economic structure that uplifts workers, we can build an Alabama we’re all proud to call home.

Click here to read the full version of this article.

Expanding Medicaid would save moms and babies

By Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director

Where you live shouldn’t impact whether you get health care. But many women face preventable barriers to obtaining maternal health care in Alabama. Closing Alabama’s health coverage gap through Medicaid expansion is an essential part of the solution.

Alabama has experienced a steady rate of labor and delivery department closures in recent years, creating maternity care deserts. More than one-third of Alabama counties are maternity care deserts, with some people having to drive up to 100 miles to reach the nearest labor and delivery department. Since October 2023, at least four hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments. Grove Hill Memorial Hospital in Clarke County became the latest addition to that list last month.

The closure of accessible labor and delivery departments is dangerous for mothers and babies. When rural hospitals close their obstetric units, pregnant women in those areas are forced to travel long distances for maternity services. The farther a woman must travel to receive maternity care, the greater the risk of maternal morbidity and adverse infant outcomes.

Expanding Medicaid would help strengthen access to maternity care providers by improving rural hospitals’ overall finances, which could reduce the number of labor and delivery department closures in the state. Medicaid expansion would increase the number of insured patients, reducing the amount of uncompensated care that hospitals provide. Research shows that a rural hospital being located in a Medicaid expansion state decreases the likelihood it will close by an average of 62%. Protecting rural hospitals helps the whole community.

Alabama has the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation. Similarly, Alabama has the nation’s third highest infant death rate. The infant mortality rate for Black babies is 1.5 times higher than the state average and nearly twice as high as the rate for white babies. Similarly, Black mothers in Alabama are twice as likely to die during childbirth as their white counterparts.

Medicaid expansion can help address the high maternal mortality rate and health disparities in Alabama by ensuring continuous coverage before, during and after pregnancy. Expanding Medicaid would provide more women with access to regular prenatal checkups. Research shows that adoption of Medicaid expansion is associated with lower rates of maternal mortality, and reduction in infant mortality as well. It’s time for Alabama to invest in a healthier future for mothers and children by expanding Medicaid.

Diverse membership is our power

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

As an Alabama Arise member, you use your power to help create a more equitable Alabama. Every year at our Annual Meeting, our members choose our legislative priorities and fuel our advocacy efforts.

Because you are so important to our work, we want you to know who your fellow members are. We have more than 1,700 members across the state in more than three-quarters of Alabama counties. And we have set goals to diversify our membership to be more reflective of Alabama’s demographics and the concerns of folks living paycheck to paycheck.

We’re making strong progress on those goals. Through our membership survey (which you can fill out at alarise.org/membership-survey), we have learned 27% of our members are people with low incomes, 6% are people under age 30 and 32% are people of color.

If you’re ready to deepen your commitment, I want to invite you to join a group of our members who sustain our work year-round: our recurring donors. More than 200 people give monthly to Arise because they know it’s important for us to have the flexibility needed to focus year-round on the priorities that members like you choose.

Will you join this steadfast group? Our most common monthly gift is $10! Visit alarise.org/donate to set up a recurring gift online. Thank you for being a member!

Arise empowers advocates through Think Big Alabama training

By Chris Sanders, communications director

Alabama Arise partnered with Alabama Values this summer to launch Think Big Alabama: Empowering Voices for Change. This four-part grassroots advocacy training program equipped participants with skills in media, public policy and organizing. Members of the inaugural cohort completed action plans for their efforts to drive change on numerous community and statewide issues. Above: Arise’s Pres Harris and Chris Sanders (back row, first two on left) pose with Think Big Alabama participants and staff from Alabama Values and the National Park Service after the final training session Aug. 24 at the Montgomery Interpretive Center on the Alabama State University campus. (Photo courtesy of Alabama Values)

Summer EBT, Legislative Day energy highlight busy, tough 2024 session in Alabama

By Chris Sanders, communications director | chris@alarise.org

You made a difference! Alabama Arise members played a decisive role this year in securing summer food assistance for more than 500,000 children starting in summer 2025. Summer EBT funding brought an uplifting conclusion to the Alabama Legislature’s 2024 regular session, which ended May 9.

The Summer EBT victory showed the power of Arise’s policy analysis, organizing and advocacy. After the House passed an education budget without Summer EBT funding, Arise ramped up pressure on the Senate. Our policy team and lobbyists educated lawmakers about the program’s benefits. Our communications team generated dozens of media stories to build public support. And our organizers rallied Alabamians to speak out.

Ultimately, folks like you got Summer EBT funding across the finish line. Arise advocates flooded lawmakers with more than 2,700 emails, calls and personal visits urging support. And it worked: Senators added Summer EBT to the budget, and Gov. Kay Ivey signed it into law.

Our members also displayed their passion for change during Arise’s annual Legislative Day on April 2. More than 230 people packed the State House in support of our Cover Alabama campaign to close Alabama’s health coverage gap.

Lawmakers dealt setbacks to several Arise legislative priorities this year but made important progress on others. Through it all, our members kept speaking out for policies to improve the lives of Alabamians marginalized by poverty.

Setbacks on school funding, voting rights, racial equity

Early in the session, legislators enacted three harmful new laws, all of which Arise opposed. One was the CHOOSE Act (HB 129 by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville). Over time, this law could divert hundreds of millions of dollars annually from public schools to private schools and homeschooling.

Another bad bill rushed into law was SB 1 by Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, which criminalizes several forms of assistance with absentee ballot applications. Arise and other advocates fear this law could have a chilling effect on good-faith efforts to assist people who need help exercising their voting rights.

A third shortsighted new law is SB 129 by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road. The act forbids state agencies and public schools and universities from sponsoring numerous diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. It also authorizes firings of employees found to violate the act knowingly. In late May, Jacksonville State University became the first university to close its DEI office in response to this law.

Later, legislators passed two new laws that undermine worker protections. SB 53 by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, removes the requirement for an eligibility to work form for 14- and 15-year-olds. And Orr’s SB 231 makes companies ineligible for state or local tax incentives if they voluntarily recognize a union.

Good new laws on child care, housing, criminal justice reform

One positive workers’ rights law this year was SB 119 by Sen. Robert Stewart, D-Selma, which increases penalties for child labor violations. The Legislature also created tax credits designed to increase access to child care (HB 358 by Rep. Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville) and workforce housing (HB 346 by Rep. Cynthia Almond, R-Tuscaloosa). And Orr’s SB 270 improved access to public records.

Lawmakers also enacted two good criminal justice and due process reforms. Almond’s HB 275 will increase pay for many lawyers representing indigent defendants. And HB 188 by Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, requires a uniform hearing process and hearing rights for students suspended or expelled from public K-12 schools.

The work continues

Several other Arise-backed bills made major progress but came up just short of passage. HB 29 by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa (allowing resentencing hearings for some defendants convicted under the Habitual Felony Offender Act) won House committee approval. Orr’s SB 62 (removing state sales tax from many infant and maternity products) passed the Senate but never reached the House floor. And HB 309 by Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg (providing paid parental leave for state employees) passed the House but died on the Senate calendar.

With your support, Arise will keep advocating for important policy changes like these in 2025 and beyond. We will keep working to expand Medicaid and eliminate the state grocery tax. And we will keep strengthening our movement for a better, more inclusive Alabama.

Join us for Town Hall Tuesdays!

By Presdelane Harris, organizing director | pres@alarise.org

Listening is both a value and process foundational to Arise’s approach to shaping and advancing policies that matter most to those marginalized by poverty.

Arise depends on what we hear to help guide our work toward a better Alabama. That’s why our virtual Town Hall Tuesdays return this year. These events are a chance for you to receive updates and share your vision for our 2025 priorities.

Join us online July 16 and Aug. 6. We’re listening! Visit alarise.org/2024townhalltuesdays to register for one or both sessions.

Arise organizers are also available to meet with groups in person. Email me at pres@alarise.org to get connected.

Annual Meeting: Save the date

Mark your calendars for Arise’s Annual Meeting, online and at The Legacy Annex in Montgomery from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28. Member groups can submit 2025 issue proposals until Aug. 9 at 11:59 p.m. CDT. We’ll share more details about the meeting and issue proposal process soon.

Maternal health hits home

By Robyn Hyden, executive director | robyn@alarise.org

When Arise members convened at last year’s Annual Meeting to choose our 2024 legislative priorities, you voted to add maternal and infant health to our agenda. Most people didn’t know I was nearly eight weeks pregnant with my first child at the time!

As our team studied how we could improve maternal and infant health outcomes through our advocacy and organizing, we learned a lot from you, our partners and our new maternal health fellow.

Little did I know that what I was learning about maternal and infant health would soon affect me personally. At a routine 28-week checkup, I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia, one of the leading causes of maternal death. Soon after, my son Hank was born three months early, causing him to spend more than 80 days in UAB’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

While Hank and I are home now, happy and healthy, we were extremely lucky. Too many moms lack access to routine prenatal and postpartum care, transportation and paid family leave. I saw firsthand how many were struggling in our state’s only Level 4 NICU. I learned that around 10% of babies born in the United States will spend some time in the NICU. In a state that claims to care about babies, mothers and families still do not have the support they need. This causes us to have the third-worst rate of maternal mortality in the country. 

My family was lucky to have the support we needed. I wish the same for all those who wish to become parents. Together, Arise members envision a state where everyone has the support they need to have the family they choose. Thank you for pushing our leaders to make this a reality.

Summer EBT passage a hard-fought win for Alabama children

By LaTrell Clifford Wood, hunger policy advocate | latrell@alarise.org

Alabama Arise members helped secure a policy change this year to reduce hunger for more than 500,000 children across the state. Beginning in summer 2025, eligible children ages 5-17 will receive $120 in Summer EBT benefits to continue to have school meals through the summer. The state must cover half of the administrative costs, but the benefits are 100% federally funded.

Children will be automatically eligible to receive Summer EBT benefits if their household receives assistance under Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and/or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). Foster children and children experiencing homelessness also will qualify automatically. Applications will be required for all other eligible children.

Arise advocacy builds momentum

Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, was the first legislator to inquire about Summer EBT this session during February’s budget hearings. Hall offered an amendment to the Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget to add Summer EBT administrative funding. But the House approved the budget without it.

Arise then kicked advocacy efforts into high gear. Hundreds of our supporters demanded that their senators support Summer EBT funding, and Arise generated dozens of media stories to increase public awareness and pressure. Reports from Senate secretaries and members foreshadowed Summer EBT’s success. Several said they were overwhelmed by the number of emails and calls they were receiving.

Legislative supporters kept up the push, too. Hall joined Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, in efforts to build momentum for Summer EBT in the Senate. Sens. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile; Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman; and Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, submitted requests to add an ETF line item for Summer EBT.

A victory to reduce hunger in Alabama

Arise and other Hunger Free Alabama coalition members made their case directly to the Senate’s ETF budget committee April 25, testifying in support of Summer EBT. Our advocacy worked. The following week, the committee added $10 million for the Department of Human Resources to administer Summer EBT in partnership with the state Department of Education.

The full Senate approved the budget 30-0 in early May. And after a brief jump-scare moment when lawmakers delayed the bill in a conference committee, the House and Senate both voted unanimously for the final budget – including the Summer EBT funding – on May 9, the session’s final day. Gov. Kay Ivey signed the budget into law on May 15.

Arise is relieved by the great news that Alabama children and families will be able to participate in this essential program in summer 2025. And we are inundated with gratitude for our members and partners who responded to our action alerts. Your advocacy made the difference!

Building momentum for closing the coverage gap

By Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director | debbie@alarise.org

Alabama Arise and the Cover Alabama coalition have built powerful momentum to expand Medicaid and close the state’s health coverage gap in recent months.

Arise held a news conference with our partners at the March of Dimes and Alabama Rural Health Association during our annual Legislative Day in April. The event highlighted how Medicaid expansion could improve infant and mortality rates in our state and keep rural hospitals open. More than 230 individuals from across the state attended and spoke up in support of the nearly 300,000 Alabamians who need health coverage.

In another encouraging development, the House and Senate Health Committees held a joint meeting in late April to hear from other states about their efforts to close the health coverage gap. This hearing was a platform for legislators and experts to explore potential solutions, drawing insights from successful initiatives in Arkansas and North Carolina.

‘Their loved one is now getting help’

Key figures from North Carolina, such as state Sen. Jim Burgin, shared their state’s journey in closing the coverage gap. Burgin, a vocal opponent of Medicaid expansion in the past, highlighted the overwhelming gratitude from individuals receiving assistance.

“I live in a very rural and very conservative area,” Burgin said during the hearing. “I have not had one person that has come up to me and told me, ‘Jim, you shouldn’t have done that, and we’re against you for doing that.’ But I’ve had hundreds of people come up to me and thank me because their loved one is now getting help.”

The meeting seemed to drive a shift in attitudes among some conservative legislators. Many have expressed an openness to exploring avenues for closing the coverage gap.

Meanwhile, we also celebrated the progress that Mississippi made in its efforts to close the coverage gap. In February, the Mississippi House voted 99-20 to expand Medicaid. While that bill ultimately did not pass in the Senate, Mississippi made incredible progress by bringing conservative lawmakers on board and making Medicaid expansion a hot topic in the state. Alabama legislators took notice, and Mississippi’s progress will put pressure on our legislators to move forward as well.

Looking forward

In the coming months, Cover Alabama will continue to beat the drum in support of Medicaid expansion. We are so grateful for your continued support. Together, we are making significant strides toward Medicaid expansion in Alabama.

Let’s continue to raise our voices, engage with lawmakers and advocate for equitable health care access for every Alabamian.

CHOOSE Act set to undermine funding for Alabama public schools

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst | carol@alarise.org

The Alabama Legislature struck a major blow against public education this session by passing the CHOOSE Act. This law likely will drain hundreds of millions of dollars annually from public schools that have long struggled with underfunding. Alabama Arise testified twice against the bill, but conservative lawmakers moved quickly to enact it.

The act – HB 129 by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville – will divert at least $100 million every year from Alabama’s public schools. The law creates “education savings accounts” for parents to pay for private school or homeschooling.

In 2025 and 2026, only families with incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level will be eligible. But starting in 2027, the accounts will be available to all parents, no matter how wealthy the participating families are, and regardless of whether their children have ever attended public schools.

Begins next year

Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, Alabama will establish annual refundable tax credits of up to $7,000 per child for children enrolled in private schools and of up to $2,000 per child for children who are homeschooled. A refundable tax credit means parents whose children attend private school or who are homeschooled could receive more in private school vouchers than they pay in income taxes.

The bill establishes a CHOOSE Act Fund, which can accumulate as much as $500 million for private schools and homeschooling. That money otherwise would fund public education. Schools receiving these funds would have to meet licensure and testing requirements but would not have to use the same standardized tests that public schools do.

Looser requirements for participating schools

Participating schools are required not to discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin. But the new law does not explicitly forbid discrimination on the basis of gender or gender identity. Participating schools also do not have to conform to admission or hiring policies, meaning they can deny admission to children with special needs and can hire uncertified teachers. Participating schools also are allowed to impose religious practices and criteria.

Voucher programs like the CHOOSE Act have been accompanied by steep declines in public school spending in multiple states, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found. These programs also have not improved educational outcomes, even for students enrolled in private schools, EPI found. EPI researchers concluded that “the only reason for this policy thrust is ideology rooted in hostility to public education.”

LaTrell Clifford Wood: Arise’s new star at the State House

By Whitney Washington, communications associate | whitney@alarise.org

The halls of the Alabama State House had a new face this legislative session.

LaTrell Clifford Wood started as Alabama Arise’s hunger policy advocate in November. Since then, the Stillman College graduate has worked tirelessly to ensure Alabama’s most marginalized residents have access to food. In her role, she advocates directly with lawmakers for legislation that supports getting food to the Alabamians who need it most. She also convenes the Hunger Free Alabama coalition of 88 organizations.

As the youngest member of the Arise staff, LaTrell offered up insights after her first legislative session.

“I think this session has really taught me to hold space for the world to grow, change and evolve, and find new room for hope,” she said. “You can have a resume that is really heavy with blue collar and service experience, and those experiences are meaningful. Those are ‘real jobs.’”

The intergenerational relationships with other Arise staff members proved to be helpful as she navigated an especially challenging session.

“I picked up gems of wisdom from people who have been doing this work a lot longer than me, and actualized the value that young people can bring to a space when they are treated as meaningful contributors,” LaTrell said.

Making use of opportunities

LaTrell grew up in Irondale, a city of about 13,000 near Birmingham, and is a proud HBCU grad. Her time at Stillman brought her into hunger advocacy work and a systemic framework for change.

“There are systems in place by which we lose wisdom with the people we love. So I said to myself, ‘Whatever I do, I have to take care of myself, and it has to be sustainable,’” LaTrell said. “Since I was a pandemic grad, I decided to take a break and explore more options, and that led me to Congressional Black Caucus Foundation [CBCF].”

Through the CBCF, LaTrell interned in U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell’s office in Washington, D.C. That is where she first learned of Alabama Arise.

“My team in Rep. Sewell’s office really advocated for me, and Akiesha [Anderson, Arise’s former policy and advocacy director] really opened the doors for me to Alabama politics, and made a safe space for me to come back home and grow and learn at Arise, and I am so grateful for her and the rest of Arise’s staff for welcoming me,” LaTrell said.

Telling her story

LaTrell’s advocacy this year helped secure $10 million in Summer EBT administrative funding for 2025. She finds that telling her personal stories to lawmakers has helped her in this work.

“It was really healing and energizing to talk to Sen. [Rodger] Smitherman, whose district I grew up in, about my experiences with hunger and its impact, and see him really stand 10 toes down for children across the state,” she said. “Countless children will have some measure of relief from hunger over the summer months, for generations to come. It’s hard to wrap my head around in more ways than one.”

After an impactful first legislative session, LaTrell has even bigger goals for Arise’s hunger advocacy work. Universal school breakfast is her next advocacy priority.

“I think the first step in that is leaning into securing a state appropriation to subsidize universal school breakfast in the next year,” she said.

LaTrell also said she hopes to help bring even more young people like her into the Alabama Arise fold.

“I look forward to building more avenues to meet young Alabamians where they are,” she said.

An optimistic look at Alabama

As a young Alabamian who returned to the state after working elsewhere, LaTrell said she wants the rest of the world to see what Alabama is really like.

“When I go out of state, a lot of people say, ‘You’re from Alabama?’ And there’s always a tone,” she said. “So my favorite experience is being able to school people on all the misconceptions they have, and all the contributions Alabamians and Alabama have made to the U.S. and the world.”

LaTrell is incredibly proud of her Alabama roots and how they’ve shaped her family.

“My family has been domestic refugees of the state, run out by racial violence during the first wave of the Great Migration. But somehow, we find our way back, and every generation, we have been able to make a meaningful difference. And that is worth being proud of,” she said.

How to get involved

For those looking to get involved with the critical work of feeding Alabamians, LaTrell has some suggestions.

Arise supporters who live in or have connections in Limestone and Morgan counties, as well as Opelika, can support hunger advocacy by talking with parents, educators and superintendents in their communities about the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). More than 50% of the schools in these areas could serve universal school meals through CEP but are not. The deadline for schools to opt in for the upcoming school year is June 30.

“I encourage members to keep an eye out for hunger-related action alerts, and follow us on Facebook at Hunger Free Alabama!” LaTrell said.

Consider Arise in long-term planning

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director | jacob@alarise.org

Every year, members like you play a pivotal role in making progress toward our shared vision of an Alabama where everyone has the resources to live happy, productive lives. 

This year, together, we secured funding for Summer EBT for more than 500,000 children. Last year, we reduced the state grocery tax for every Alabamian.

Our long-term vision is a collective effort that requires members to give financially and take action. Your ongoing support, whether through a monthly or annual gift, helps us sustain our work year-round. We deeply appreciate your commitment.

Did you know you can help Arise secure its future beyond this year? There’s probably a type of gift that you haven’t considered: leaving us in your will.

Regardless of your income, making a will is an important step to ensure your end-of-life wishes are known. There are online tools that can help, and consulting a financial planner would be a great idea, too. You don’t even have to tell us that you included us, though we would be glad if you did!

We would love to share sample language or chat about the legacy you want to leave Alabama. Reach out to me at jacob@alarise.org. 

Thank you for your ongoing contributions to building a better Alabama.

We’re hiring!

We’re grateful to former Arise policy and advocacy director Akiesha Anderson for her contributions to our work for the last two years. Akiesha has moved to live full time in Los Angeles with her husband and will work with Represent Justice, a national nonprofit and an Arise member group.

We’re seeking a new policy and advocacy director to continue our work for dignity, equity and justice for Alabamians who are marginalized by poverty. The ideal candidate will be an experienced manager and public policy advocate who is passionate about justice, opportunity and racial equity.

Visit alarise.org/about/employment for more on the position and information on how to apply. Applications will be accepted until Monday, June 17, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. CDT.

Grocery tax, protecting voting rights among Arise priorities for 2024 session

By Akiesha Anderson, policy and advocacy director

The Alabama Legislature began its second regular session of the current quadrennium on Feb. 6. Lawmakers already have voted on numerous hot-button issues early in this session, and Alabama Arise anticipates that trend may continue. The upcoming presidential election, Alabama’s early primary date and other political factors may color what legislative leaders prioritize this year. The regular session will end no later than May 20.

Eliminate the state grocery tax

Arise was thrilled last year to help pass monumental legislation that reduced the state sales tax on groceries by 1 cent on Sept. 1, 2023. That law also authorized an additional 1-cent cut to the grocery tax in a future year. Combined, those reductions will cut the state grocery tax by half over time, from 4% to 2%.

Under the law, the second 1-cent reduction will occur in the first year when Education Trust Fund (ETF) revenues are projected to grow by 3.5% or more. Unfortunately, projections unveiled during this year’s budget hearings indicated ETF revenues will grow by only 2% in 2025. Thus, the additional 1-cent grocery tax reduction likely will occur in a future year rather than in September 2024.

This 3.5% growth provision, however, came as an amendment just before lawmakers passed the bill. The original version of the bill would have reduced the grocery tax by another 1 cent as long as annual ETF revenue growth was at least 2%. During a Feb. 12 meeting of Alabama’s Joint Study Commission on Grocery Taxation, Arise urged legislators to amend the law to reduce the growth threshold to 2%, as originally proposed. This change would allow Alabamians to receive the additional reduction sooner rather than later.

We will continue to push the Legislature to finish what it started with regard to cutting the grocery tax. We also will oppose budget legislation that we find alarming, such as the CHOOSE Act, which would divert at least $100 million of ETF money each year to non-public schools. At press time, the House had passed this proposal (HB 129, sponsored by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville), and a Senate committee had held a public hearing.

Protect voting rights and preserve child labor safeguards

Lawmakers have advanced two other troubling bills so far this year. The Senate passed SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, which would criminalize many efforts to attempt to assist people with absentee voting. The Senate also passed SB 53, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, which would eliminate the eligibility to work form for 14- and 15-year-olds. This requirement is an important safeguard that helps protect children from exploitative child labor practices. Arise successfully advocated to amend SB 53 to require data collection about injuries and labor violations.

Arise has reason to be concerned about both of these measures. We have devoted the early weeks of this session to educating Arise members, legislators and communities about these bills’ harms.

Advance criminal justice reform 

It is an understatement to say that Alabama’s criminal justice system is in need of reform. A U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accuses our state’s overcrowded prison system of violating the Constitution. And our state’s parole rates are abysmally low – just 8% in fiscal year 2023.

With those factors and others, Arise has a lot to keep us busy with regard to criminal justice reform. Thus, we will be devoting a significant portion of our time this year to legislation that would address issues like these. We also will support legislation to reform our death penalty laws. And we will support efforts to reform the felony murder rule, which allows a person to be convicted of first-degree murder even if they did not intend to or did not actually kill anyone.

Fund public transportation

Inadequate funding for public transportation keeps thousands of people across Alabama from meeting basic needs. Though lawmakers created the Alabama Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF) in 2018 to help fix our transit issues, the Legislature has never funded it. That is why Arise is urging lawmakers to include a General Fund appropriation for public transportation to rectify this oversight.

Ultimately, the return on transit investment makes allocating money to the PTTF a wise use of public funds. In fact, every $1 million invested in transit creates 49 full-time jobs, many of which are long-term jobs with good pay. An appropriation of up to $50 million from the General Fund to the PTTF also could empower Alabama to double its investment for operation expenses and to draw down up to $200 million of federal matching funds for capital improvements.

Arise will do all we can this year to educate lawmakers on the benefits of investing in public transportation. We also will highlight how a lack of adequate public transit limits workforce participation and shared prosperity across Alabama.

Arise Legislative Day is Tuesday, April 2!

Your voice matters! Make plans now to speak up with us for a better Alabama for all.

Join us at Arise’s 2024 Legislative Day on Tuesday, April 2, at the Alabama State House in Montgomery. 

Legislative Day is an annual opportunity for Arise members and friends to meet their lawmakers and make the case for policy changes to improve the lives of everyday Alabamians. We will announce the focus of Legislative Day closer to the date, but it could focus on closing the health coverage gap, further untaxing groceries and funding needed priorities.

We will gather at the State House in Room 200 for a briefing, news conference and lunch. Then folks will meet with their legislators. We will end the day with a debrief of the legislative visits and a membership meeting. 

Visit alariseaction.org to register. Please register by March 25.

There is no cost to register, but a $15 donation for lunch is suggested.

We look forward to seeing you!

State, federal budgets need to do more for children

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst

It’s budget season at the Alabama Legislature and in Congress. But many of our state and federal representatives are not doing enough to meet the very real needs of ordinary people.

Gov. Kay Ivey has now proposed an Education Trust Fund budget as well as a General Fund budget, which funds Medicaid, mental health care and other state services. Ivey recommended a needed 4% funding increase for local K-12 schools. But she failed to include funding for two Alabama Arise priorities: public transportation and universal school breakfast. Arise will advocate actively for these critical needs as the budgets move through the Legislature.

Help needed for public schools, public transportation

At the same time, Ivey and education budget committee chairs are pushing HB 129 and SB 61, which would divert at least $100 million annually from K-12 public schools to pay for private school and homeschooling. This proposal would undermine efforts to improve public education and would lay groundwork for even more efforts to defund public schools. 

Ivey’s General Fund budget would provide needed increases for mental health and the Department of Human Resources. But it misses the mark by not requesting money for the Housing Trust Fund and the Public Transportation Trust Fund. Arise will be working during the session to add these critical needs to the final budget. 

Action needed on federal level to help families make ends meet

Federal budgets also have failed to meet critical human needs. A temporary Child Tax Credit (CTC) increase in 2021 cut the national child poverty rate by nearly half, but Congress allowed it to expire. Fortunately, the U.S. House in January passed a bill to expand the CTC for three years. But the Senate has yet to consider the measure.

About 280,000 Alabama children would benefit from the House’s CTC expansion. Arise has urged U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville to approve the CTC expansion quickly and help move thousands of Alabama kids out of poverty.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides nutritious foods for pregnant and postpartum women, babies and toddlers. But WIC faces a budget shortfall because of recent food cost increases and higher participation. Without action by Congress, 92,000 Alabama mothers and young children could lose some or all of their WIC food. Congress must pass budget legislation in March to avoid a federal shutdown, and it’s critical for lawmakers to support our moms and babies by including adequate funding for WIC.

Recent Alabama execution underscores ongoing need for death penalty reform

By Mike Nicholson, senior policy analyst

This year already has seen a number of Alabama Arise priorities in the news, and death penalty reform is no exception. Unfortunately, Alabama recently became the first state to perform an execution using the unsafe and untested method known as nitrogen hypoxia. The state executed Kenneth Smith using this method on Jan. 25, despite concerns from many Alabamians and even the United Nations.

Smith’s execution could not have legally occurred if he had been sentenced today. After finding him guilty, the jury voted 11-1 for Smith to be sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the sentencing judge overruled the jury’s wishes and imposed the death penalty, a practice known as judicial override. Lawmakers banned this practice in 2017, but the ban wasn’t made retroactive. That means more than 30 people are still on Alabama’s death row against the wishes of a jury.

Arise and other death penalty reform advocates supported more than 150 faith leaders as they petitioned the governor to halt Smith’s execution and called for increasing transparency around the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method. Similarly, we supported advocates, community members and former death row inmates who gathered at the steps of the State Capitol to protest the execution and the state’s new method.

This execution and the advocacy of Alabamians demonstrates, more than ever, our state’s need for death penalty reform. We must make the judicial override ban retroactive to address the injustice experienced by dozens of people who were sentenced to death by a judge, rather than a jury of their peers. Similarly, Alabama is one of only two states that doesn’t require a unanimous jury vote to sentence someone to death. In our state, only 10 of 12 jurors must agree to impose a death sentence.

Arise announces newly formed staff union

By Whitney Washington, communications associate

The staff, leadership and board of Alabama Arise announced in February the launch of Alabama Arise Workers United-Communications Workers of America (AAWU-CWA), the newly formed Arise staff union. AAWU-CWA is an affiliate of CWA Local 3908.

“I am honored to be a part of an organization that allowed us to make our own choice about whether or not to join a union,” said Formeeca Tripp, Arise’s southeast Alabama organizer. “It is reassuring to know I have job security and a voice as a union-represented worker.”

All eligible Arise staff members signed authorization cards to join CWA in November after a short organizing campaign. Arise staff and board leadership unanimously supported voluntary recognition of the union.

“As a pro-labor organization, voluntarily recognizing our staff union was an easy choice for Arise,” Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “As a leader, I think our greatest accomplishment is supporting and growing leadership at all levels of our organization. I believe everyone has something to contribute to building a strong and healthy workplace, and I’m so proud of our staff for taking this step.” 

AAWU-CWA has elected bargaining representatives and stewards to negotiate an initial bargaining agreement.

“I’m honored and energized to be one of Alabama Arise’s first union stewards,” said McKenzie Burton, an Arise development associate and one of AAWU-CWA’s newly elected stewards. “Unions are vital in uplifting and protecting Alabama’s workforce. They built the middle class and are what will rebuild the middle class. I am humbled to be a part of an organization that continues to champion these values at every level.”

The protection and power of Alabama’s workers are critical to Arise’s mission to improve the lives of Alabamians who are marginalized by poverty.

“I grew up as a child of a union parent, and now I can pass that experience on to my children,” Tripp said. 

Engagement helps voices join together

By Presdelane Harris, organizing director

The statewide organizing that Alabama Arise has done since our founding has made Arise unique among our national partners. For us, engaging members and people in the community, especially those directly impacted by the issues, is essential to our values. The voices of the people must be included in the policymaking process. To that end, we work with local partners across the state to engage folks in advocacy.

This year, we started 2024 with a flurry of opportunities to engage people in the policymaking process. Since mid-January, the Arise organizing team, working with local partners, has collectively engaged more than 300 people to help them prepare for the legislative session. We have informed people about issues and equipped them for advocacy. We have facilitated spaces for people to raise their voices, including legislative forums in Mobile and Fairhope. And we have built new relationships while strengthening existing ones.

We invite others to join us and add their voices to advocacy efforts that help us shape a better Alabama for all!

Government for the people?

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

Lately, I am struck by how many elected officials view their job as serving private industry and large corporations instead of their constituents and voters. 

This belief comes out in the ways some officials discuss Alabama’s “labor force participation” concerns. Instead of increasing workers’ autonomy by investing in public transportation, affordable housing, health care or child care – or instead of addressing low wages by incentivizing good-paying jobs with benefits – too many leaders continue simply to propose more and more corporate tax credits. It’s a tired “solution” repeatedly demonstrated not to work to address the root causes of poverty and labor force decline.

This attitude was also obvious in recent opinion pieces circulated by Gov. Kay Ivey and Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair opposing the United Auto Workers (UAW) organizing drive targeting multiple Alabama auto manufacturers. Rather than viewing labor unions as partners that could increase wages and benefits for Alabama families, our elected officials frame them as a threat to the economy and general order.

We know we can’t address poverty in Alabama without empowering every single family to access good-paying jobs with benefits and worker protections. With your support, Arise will continue to advance a pro-worker, pro-family agenda. And we will refuse to accept measly corporate tax breaks as the solution to our problems.

How to use the ‘people power’ of Arise

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

As an Arise member, you are a part of our network of 151 organizations and more than 1,500 individuals committed to building a better Alabama. And our people power is growing! Your membership also comes with benefits that we want you to use. You can:

• Connect with like-minded members at our Legislative Day and Annual Meeting.
• Vote on our annual policy priorities and elect our board of directors.
• Access insider policy resources, such as the Daily News Digest, quarterly print newsletters and weekly legislative update emails during the legislative session.
• Work directly with our organizers and lobbyist to advocate for the causes you care about.

The 2024 legislative session has just begun, and your support is more important now than ever. Will you help us build momentum for change? Here are a few ideas:

• Visit alarise.org/donate to make a monthly gift to help us sustain our work year-round.
• Share our social media posts so we can grow our reach.
• Ask your friends, family and groups you’re a part of to join Arise, too.

If you have any questions, reach out to me at jacob@alarise.org. Thank you for joining Arise in our work!

Welcome, Victoria!

Victoria Enyinda Petty joined Arise as a maternal health fellow in January. She is a passionate maternal health researcher dedicated to improving the health outcomes of women. Her professional journey spans several industries, including higher education, corporate wellness, disease intervention and event management – providing her a unique and diverse perspective in all her pursuits.

Victoria holds a bachelor’s degree in health care management and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Community Health Promotion program at UAB.

Thank you, Wendy!

Arise’s longtime bookkeeper Wendy Tucker retired at the end of 2023. We want to give a huge thank-you to Wendy for all she did to help our organization run smoothly for more than 17 years! Wendy’s passion for Arise’s mission was evident in every aspect of her work.

Wendy developed the accounting structure for Alabama Arise and Alabama Arise Action from the ground up. She helped us create budgets, kept a close eye on the finances and managed employee benefits. The foundation she created has supported Arise through seasons of change and growth and will continue to support the financial integrity of both organizations.

We will miss having her positive attitude, sense of humor, knowledge and insights as a part of the Arise team. Happy retirement, Wendy!

In loving memory of Jim Littleton

Alabama Arise expresses our gratitude and respect for Jim Littleton, who contributed so much to the community and betterment of Alabama for all people, especially those considered “the least of these.” We join his family in mourning the passing of a great man.

Mr. Littleton died in January at age 84. He was Arise’s pivotal first hire, serving as legislative coordinator in our early years. His high integrity and deep compassion laid a foundation upon which we still build our work today.

We’ll miss Mr. Littleton’s wisdom and his kind smile. We’re grateful for his longtime support of our mission and his unwavering belief that Alabama can and should be a better place for everyone. We celebrate Mr. Littleton’s life, which was well-lived and an inspiration to so many.

The State of Working Alabama 2023

Since the 1990s, Alabama has bet big on the auto industry. It has been a high-stakes effort to rebuild the state’s economy around high-wage manufacturing, raise the wages of Alabama’s workers and reduce economic distress across the state. A quarter-century after the first M-Class rolled off the Mercedes-Benz assembly line in Vance, Alabama Arise’s 2023 edition of The State of Working Alabama assesses the results of the drive to bring the automotive manufacturing industry to our state.

The report analyzes the ways in which Alabama’s auto industry has met or fallen short of its potential. Our report shows the heavy use of tax incentives in our state’s economic development strategy. It also reveals how a worker-focused development strategy would bring better pay and benefits than the company-focused strategy that Alabama has prioritized. We released the report in November, and its findings continue to attract media attention amid the United Auto Workers’ ongoing campaign to unionize Alabama auto plants.

Read the full report here.

Arise work wins national recognition!

Alabama Arise staff members were proud to take home two Graphies in December during the State Priorities Partnership’s Connect Conference in Atlanta. The Graphies are a lighthearted ceremony meant to celebrate the work of the numerous organizations in the nationwide partnership. Arise was proud to win in two categories: Best Development Collateral and Best Outreach Collateral. 

 

 

 

Maternal, infant health care debuts as an Arise priority

By Whitney Washington, communications associate

Alabama Arise reached a new milestone in October when more than 500 members voted to determine Arise’s 2024 legislative priorities after our Annual Meeting. Nearly 100 members attended the meeting in person at the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Institute in Montgomery, while almost 250 attended virtually. Outgoing board president Kathy Vincent led the meeting, which featured presentations from Arise staff and member group representatives.

Six of the seven priorities are returning from our 2023 agenda. Read our news release for more information about each.

A notable newcomer to our roster is a comprehensive approach to maternal and infant health care, which was proposed by ACLU of Alabama. This priority certainly aligns with our ongoing work to expand Medicaid and close Alabama’s health coverage gap. And our members decided it was critical for this to become a named priority in its own right. We are starting off strong by hiring a maternal health fellow to support our work to protect coverage during the Medicaid unwinding period.

Advocates have a long road ahead on this issue. Alabama has the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation. And according to the March of Dimes, more than one-third of Alabama’s counties are “maternal care deserts.”

A safer Alabama for mothers will include access to high-quality maternal health care where patients live, removal of criminal penalties for doctors providing necessary care, and more freestanding maternal care centers across the state.

Alabama’s mothers and babies deserve so much better. Arise is committed to creating a safer and healthier state that will give parents, children and every Alabamian the chance to thrive and achieve their full potential.

Alabama Arise’s 2024 priorities

By Matt Okarmus, communications associate

Alabama Arise is proud to announce our 2024 legislative priorities. Read our news release for more information about each.

• Fully untaxing groceries
• Expanding Medicaid
• Voting rights
• Criminal justice reform
• Comprehensive maternal and infant health care
• Dedicated funding for public transportation
• Death penalty reform

“Arise believes in dignity, equity and justice for everyone,” Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “Our 2024 legislative priorities reflect our members’ embrace of those values, and they underscore the need to enact policies that empower Alabamians of every race, income and background to reach their full potential. Together, we’re working to build a healthier, more just and more inclusive Alabama for all.”

Email Arise organizing director Presdelane Harris at pres@alarise.org to set up an issue preview event in your area ahead of the Legislature’s 2024 regular session.

Three strategies to boost Alabama’s workforce

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

Alabama’s labor force participation rate is among the nation’s lowest. Only 57% of working-age adults reported they were actively working or looking for jobs as of September 2023.

Alabama Arise worker policy advocate Dev Wakeley participated in a recent discussion with lawmakers about barriers to workforce entry. He shared Arise’s prescription to address this issue, based on clear feedback we’ve heard from workers. (Read more on our blog.)

Fund the Public Transportation Trust Fund to help workers get to jobs.

Multiple survey groups cited transit access as their top barrier. Alabama must join the rest of our Southeastern neighbors by boosting public transportation investments.

Stop incentivizing employers that fail to deliver on promises to provide good-paying jobs.

Lawmakers this year strengthened some reporting requirements for large economic tax incentives. Those enhancements were critical, but our state must do more. Alabama still ranks among the least transparent states when it comes to corporate tax subsidies. We must ensure that incentives are tied to good-paying jobs with benefits and are evaluated for effectiveness.

Expand Medicaid to keep working-age adults healthy.

Investing in Alabama’s health care infrastructure is not just an avenue to create more jobs. It’s also a way to keep workers healthy and in the workforce.

Medicaid ‘unwinding’ hits halfway mark in Alabama

By Jennifer Harris, senior health policy advocate

In April, Medicaid ended a continuous coverage eligibility period brought on by the public health emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic. What followed was a return to traditional eligibility requirements. This return to normal rules is called “unwinding.” Coverage losses have begun, and tens of thousands of Alabamians likely will lose their Medicaid coverage by June 2024.

These losses are especially harsh for those who still may be eligible for coverage. When coverage loss occurs for procedural reasons, enrollees may need to submit further information to keep or maintain coverage. To prevent unnecessary coverage loss, please return any application materials to Alabama Medicaid, even if you do not think you are eligible.

If you feel Medicaid terminated your coverage in error, call our partners at ADAP at 800-826-1675 for help.

For more information, please check out Alabama Arise’s Alabama Medicaid unwinding toolkit.

Arise, worker advocates celebrate progress

By Dev Wakeley, worker policy advocate

Alabama Arise is working on multiple fronts to improve life for working Alabamians. As part of our ongoing Worker Power Project, we held an Oct. 26 convening in Montgomery with around 20 worker advocacy groups and organized labor partners from across the state. Attendees met to discuss building and implementing a state agenda to build the policy power of working-class Alabamians.

Unions highlighted organizing campaigns at various stages, including the United Mine Workers of America strike and United Auto Workers actions nationwide and in Alabama. They also discussed efforts to empower workers through the recent community benefits agreement at New Flyer, an electric bus manufacturer in Anniston.

Arise previewed this year’s forthcoming State of Working Alabama report, which will focus on job quality in the auto industry. Attendees also discussed ways to advance worker-centered policies and defend against anti-worker bills in 2024. And advocates planned how to build and strengthen long-term, strong interorganizational relationships and power for worker organizations throughout Alabama to support growing the collective power of organized labor.

Join us in this season of gratitude

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

In this season of gratitude, I’m thankful for you – our members.

You lead our work by sharing your vision for building a better Alabama. And then you join Alabama Arise in getting to work by taking action and by giving financially.

More than 10% of our financial support comes from members like you. And your giving is important because it gives Arise the flexibility needed to focus on the issues you care about, like access to health care for all and a tax structure that promotes the common good.

Will you join us in this season of generosity? Join or renew your membership with a gift! There are so many ways to give:

• A one-time or monthly gift online.
• A check mailed to P.O. Box 1188, Montgomery, AL 36101.
• A gift of stock.
• A gift from an IRA, 401(k) or other tax-deferred savings account.

Once you’ve given, invite your friends, family and network to join you in making a difference! Be sure to share your vision for a better Alabama and how Arise works to make it a reality.

If you have any questions about membership giving or would like more information, please reach out to me at jacob@alarise.org. Thank you for your generosity in this end-of-year season.

Welcome, LaTrell, Malee and Natalie!

LaTrell Clifford Wood joined Arise in November as the hunger policy advocate. In this role, she works at the helm of the Hunger Free Alabama coalition. LaTrell is the youngest daughter and granddaughter of a teacher and three generations of civil rights activists with roots in both west and east Alabama. LaTrell earned her bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in fine arts from Stillman College. As a student, LaTrell co-founded Stillman College’s Sustainable Healthy Food Initiative Task Force. She went on to serve as chairwoman of the task force and project lead for the Community Garden Project. In 2021, LaTrell made her way to Washington, D.C., with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, where she served Alabama’s 7th Congressional District as a congressional intern.

Malee Galloway joined Arise in November as the finance and operations associate. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Samford University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is passionate about using her skills in finance and human resources administration to serve Arise’s mission. Malee resides in Hoover, and in her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, fiance and fur baby, Lincoln.

Natalie Bishnoi joined Arise in November as a development associate. For almost a decade, she has been in coalition-building and fundraising spaces for nonprofits and grassroots organizers in Alabama. She is an accomplished relationship builder with expertise in strategic planning, sales and grant management. Prior to joining Arise, Natalie’s work was focused on statewide and regional food systems, local agriculture and food access. Natalie resides in Huntsville, and in her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her children and volunteering in her community. She participates in many grassroots campaigns to demand public accountability and serves on several committees that are focused on community organizing, advocating for criminal justice reform and promoting housing equity.

Arise lifts up health advocates’ stories

Through our storytelling work, Alabama Arise is elevating the voices of people living in our state’s health coverage gap. Two Arise storytellers – Sumiton hairstylist Eryn Mullins and Arise board member Kenneth Tyrone King – joined our Cover Alabama storyteller Whit Sides to speak Oct. 10 at a UAB panel on the human side of Medicaid expansion. Kenneth also spoke at a Nov. 6 event at WorkPlay in Birmingham highlighting the benefits of closing Alabama’s coverage gap.

If you or someone you know would like to share your health care story, email Whit Sides at whit@alarise.org.

Alabama’s grocery tax reduction now in effect

By Chris Sanders, communications director

Alabama has taken an important first step toward untaxing groceries. HB 479 took effect Sept. 1, reducing the state sales tax on groceries from 4% to 3%. The law will reduce the tax by another percentage point as soon as September 2024, as long as Education Trust Fund (ETF) revenues grow by at least 3.5% over the previous year. This policy change will help families keep food on the table and ease financial strain for Alabamians with low incomes.

The law’s enactment came after decades of persistent advocacy by Alabama Arise members. Several Arise staff members celebrated at a ceremonial bill signing July 20 at the State Capitol in Montgomery. Numerous legislative champions also attended the event, including Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre; Reps. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, and Penni McClammy, D-Montgomery; and former Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery.

Arise remains committed to eliminating the rest of the state grocery tax responsibly and sustainably. Those efforts will include working with policymakers to protect ETF funding by closing tax loopholes skewed in favor of wealthy households and highly profitable corporations.

Annual meeting to chart Arise’s course for 2024

By Matt Okarmus, communications associate

Grassroots democracy will be on display when Alabama Arise members choose our 2024 legislative priorities at our Annual Meeting on Saturday, Sept. 30. There will be options to meet both in person and online via Zoom.

As a member, you have the power to select the legislative priorities we will pursue in 2024. Two new proposals will compete with five current priorities for five slots on next year’s policy agenda.

Below, you’ll find more information on the Annual Meeting, including a new location this year. You’ll also see member groups’ summaries of the new policy proposals and our policy staff’s overviews of the current legislative priorities. And you’ll see updates on our two permanent priorities: adequate state budgets and tax reform.

We hope to see you in September as we gather to renew our shared commitment to building a better Alabama for all! 

Things to know for our Annual Meeting

When:

Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023
10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Where:

This is a hybrid event with options to attend in person as well as remotely via Zoom. The in-person meeting will be at The Legacy Annex, 115 Coosa St., Montgomery, AL 36104. This is the former site of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum. You can find more details and registration information at alarise.org/annualmeeting2023. There is no cost to attend, though donations are welcome.

Voting rules:

Member groups may cast up to 42 votes for legislative priorities. Before the Annual Meeting, groups may designate up to six representatives to get seven votes each. Individual members get five votes each. (A person can vote as an individual or as a member group’s representative, but not both.)

Groups must be current on dues to vote. Individual members must have given between July 1, 2022, and Aug. 31, 2023, to be eligible.

Voting for legislative priorities will be conducted online. Members will present policy proposals during the meeting. Eligible voters will receive a link and instructions after the meeting. If Arise doesn’t have your email, you will receive a postcard with voting information.

For more information:

If you have questions or need to update your contact info or group voters, call 334-832-9060 or email info@alarise.org.

An Arise tradition: the member-led agenda

By Robyn Hyden, executive director

Something interesting is happening in the world of policy organizations. After years of many think tanks working behind the scenes to set their policy agendas with little transparency or buy-in from regular people, many of our peer organizations are now realizing the best policies are those informed by the people closest to the problems.

Research and data analysis have important roles to play in any new policy formulation or advocacy campaign. But they alone can’t tell us what needs to happen to improve conditions on the ground.

Thankfully, Alabama Arise is ahead of the curve. Thirty-five years ago, Arise’s founders knew we couldn’t truly work to advance people-centered policies in Montgomery without actually working with and talking to, well, regular people. That is why we are unique among many of our peers in having a policy agenda driven and guided by our membership and directly impacted people across our state.

Driven and guided by the people

I’m proud that with your support, we’ve invested over the years in listening, fostering community conversations and seeking answers to address economic and social justice from everyday Alabamians. Our Annual Meeting and voting process are an important part of this tradition.

Public policy should not be only the purview of the wealthy, white, well-connected or well-heeled. That kind of thinking has created the problems and inequities we are fighting. Instead, the best policies to address economic hardship and poverty are those driven and guided by the people who are struggling just to get by, and by those working on the front lines to advance justice. Every year we invite you, our members, to vote on our annual legislative agenda to ensure our policy goals align with those of everyday Alabamians.

If you have not yet joined us in this process, I hope you will. Join our 2023 Annual Meeting on Sept. 30 to hear from volunteers and leaders across our state. Then participate in voting to select our 2024 legislative agenda!

Tax reform

Alabama legislators made huge strides toward eliminating the 4% state sales tax on groceries during the 2023 regular session.

This has been a longstanding priority for Alabama Arise. Thanks to the passage of HB 479 and HJR 243, Alabama will:

• Reduce the state grocery tax by 1 cent this September.
• Reduce the tax to 2% as soon as September 2024, assuming projected Education Trust Fund (ETF) revenues grow by at least 3.5% next year.
• Create a commission to study ways to eliminate the final 2 cents while protecting ETF revenue. Ultimately, this change will improve life for Alabamians who are struggling to make ends meet.

In 2023, the Legislature also:

• Passed legislation to give Alabama families a tax refund check of $150 per individual and $300 per family in December 2023.
• Passed legislation to exempt overtime pay from income taxes for the 2024 tax year.
• Phased out some existing tax incentives and required a bi-annual review of incentives.
• Took a step forward toward increasing transparency related to corporate tax incentives.

In addition, Arise was happy to see movement on SB 196, aimed at strengthening the state’s Open Records Act. This bill would have established procedures to request public records and improved public access to them. SB 196 passed the Senate and cleared a House committee, but the House unfortunately did not vote on it. Arise member group Jobs to Move America has urged us to continue advocating for transparency, particularly related to the terms of corporate tax incentive agreements.

Adequate state budgets

Thanks to federal relief funds, healthy sales and income tax collections, and rapid growth in internet sales tax revenue, Alabama went into 2023 with significant revenue increases despite high inflation and other lingering effects of the COVID-19 recession.

This healthy revenue growth allowed the Legislature to increase education funding and provide educators with a 2% raise. The state likely will have enough money to continue to cover basic needs in its 2025 budgets. Arise will keep calling on policymakers to strengthen investments in vital services. Mental health care is a longtime funding priority that Arise member group Grace Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa has urged us to underscore in our ongoing advocacy.

Importantly, lawmakers this year also held a committee hearing to discuss facts about the health coverage gap, and speakers cited Arise and Cover Alabama data. Also worth highlighting is the establishment of a Medicaid Emergency Reserve Fund within the General Fund budget. This reserve fund, capped for now at $100 million, could help Alabama cover more adults with low incomes by retaining savings to Medicaid from enhanced federal funding. Officials could use that money in future years if necessary to help fund increased Medicaid costs.

Advocates this year successfully blocked the PRICE Act, an enormous threat to public school funding. If passed, it could have allowed the diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars from the Education Trust Fund (ETF). The bill would have routed money away from public schools and into the coffers of private, at-home or other alternative education settings instead.

Though thankfully the PRICE Act did not pass this year, we anticipate it will return next year. Also causing quite a stir this session was the Legislature’s decision to allocate $100 million from the ETF to support ongoing prison construction.

In brighter news, the Legislature allocated an additional $10 million over the funding that normally would be provided for schools deemed to be “underperforming.” This money went toward the Turnaround School Initiative to help fund crucial services, including tutoring access and more auxiliary teachers.

Compiled by Akiesha Anderson, policy and advocacy director

New issue proposals

Fund the Alabama Housing Trust Fund

Submitted by Jay Williams, Low Income Housing Coalition of Alabama (LIHCA)

As Alabama stands at a crossroads, legislation to fund the Alabama Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) presents an opportunity to address poverty in our state. This proposal aims to establish a dedicated funding source for the AHTF by increasing the mortgage record fee from 15 cents per $100 of indebtedness to 30 cents per $100.

This legislation would generate an estimated $44.8 million for the AHTF and would serve as a catalyst to bridge this gap. It would provide low-income households with affordable housing options. This would help reduce the risk of homelessness and break the cycle of poverty. Moreover, by targeting rural communities, we can work toward leveling the playing field and fostering equitable access to housing opportunities.

Families with low incomes, individuals experiencing homelessness, essential workers, veterans, seniors, and individuals with disabilities all would benefit from increased access to safe and affordable housing. By prioritizing the most vulnerable members of our communities, we can uplift individuals and promote inclusive, prosperous neighborhoods.

The timeline for bill passage depends on the political climate and legislative priorities. However, with dedicated advocacy efforts and effective collaboration, we can expedite the process. Through bipartisan consensus and highlighting the urgent need for affordable housing, we can strive for swift passage in 2024.

Alabama Arise has a crucial role to play in championing AHTF funding. By mobilizing our network of supporters, engaging in grassroots advocacy and fostering alliances with like-minded organizations, we can amplify our collective voice and ensure the successful passage of this legislation.

Now is the time to invest in affordable housing as a long-term solution to address poverty and racial inequality. Funding can be sourced through a combination of public-private partnerships, leveraging federal programs, redirecting existing resources or exploring innovative financing mechanisms. By increasing the mortgage record fee, allocating a portion of community reinvestment funds or exploring tax incentives, we can secure the necessary funding to support the Alabama Housing Trust Fund.

Comprehensive maternal and infant health care reform

Submitted by Courtney Andrews, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama

Alabama is a dangerous place to be pregnant and to give birth, particularly for Black and low-resourced women. With the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation, the maternal health crisis is only worsening.

A person’s chance of dying during pregnancy, childbirth or the postpartum period is closely linked to racial identity, social and economic status and the geographic remoteness of the home. Additionally, Alabama has the third-highest mortality rate for cervical cancer. That is unacceptable, considering that cervical cancer is highly preventable, detectable and treatable.

Alabama Arise was successful in pushing policymakers to expand Medicaid for one year postpartum. Now is the time to capitalize on this progress by expanding Medicaid for the general population and introducing a comprehensive reproductive health bill that focuses on ensuring the health and safety of Alabama families more broadly and over the life course.

Such a bill, ideally introduced in the 2025 legislative session, must enshrine elective parenting (the right to choose if and when to have a child). It also should expand the scope of practice for midwives and provide a path to licensure for birth centers. And it should expand access to comprehensive prenatal, birth and postpartum care, including screenings and treatment for depression.

This bill should require a greater statewide investment in community-based organizations that assist pregnant and birthing people, as well as in housing, transportation and access to healthy food. It also should require public schools to provide comprehensive sexual health education and greater access to the HPV vaccine for school-age children. The bill also should include provisions for the care and safe birthing conditions of incarcerated people (i.e., not being shackled during birth).

Current legislative priorities

Criminal justice reform

Arise was happy to partner with Alabama Appleseed in achieving a major victory this year related to fines and fees. The Legislature passed SB 154, which limits the circumstances under which the state can suspend driver’s licenses. This new law will curb the practice of immediately suspending driver’s licenses when people are unable to afford to pay traffic tickets.

Other legislation also made significant progress through the Legislature before eventually falling short this session. That included HB 229, a “second chance” bill to reform the state’s Habitual Felony Offender Act, aka the “three-strikes” law. We were encouraged to see this legislation pass the House and make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee this year. Arise expects to see and support similar legislation next year.

In addition to the above legislation, Arise member group Represent Justice has proposed expanding our scope of work in this area to include efforts to reform Alabama’s felony murder law. Under this law, a person can be convicted of first-degree murder even if they did not intend to or did not actually kill anyone. A disproportionate share of people convicted under felony murder laws are people of color, research from several states has found. Represent Justice urges support for legislation to clarify the circumstances under which felony murder may be charged and to make other related changes.

Death penalty reform

For the first time in years, lawmakers in 2023 debated legislation to address Alabama’s unjust death penalty laws. Alabama is one of only two states to permit the issuance of death sentences via non-unanimous jury sentencing decisions. Arise this year supported HB 14, which would have aligned the state with the national trend of requiring a unanimous jury verdict prior to imposing the death penalty.

This bill also would have applied the state’s 2017 ban on judicial override retroactively. This ban forbids judges from imposing a death sentence when the jury recommends a lesser sentence. Unfortunately, when passed in 2017, the law didn’t apply to people already on death row. That has left more than 30 people on Alabama’s death row who received a death sentence against their jury’s will.

The House Judiciary Committee heard HB 14 too late for it to have a chance to become law. But Arise was proud to see member groups like Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty give compelling and moving testimony during a public hearing in support of the bill. We hope to see this legislation reintroduced and considered earlier in the session next year. 

Payday and title lending reform

Every year, high-interest loans trap thousands of struggling Alabamians in a cycle of deep debt. Payday loans are short-term (usually two-week) loans charging high annual percentage rates (APRs), most commonly 456%. Auto title loans charge up to 300% APR and also carry the risk of repossession of the vehicle. Alabama also has no title loan database, leaving the extent of harm from these loans unknown.

These high-cost loans strip wealth from borrowers and hurt communities. As of this time last year, payday lenders were on track to pull approximately $1 billion in fees out of Alabama communities over the next decade, with most of that money flowing to out-of-state companies. Predatory lending practices continue to target people of color disproportionately. These practices exacerbate the economic challenges in many struggling rural and urban areas.

A House member introduced legislation this year in an effort to reduce the harms of high-cost payday lending. But the bill unfortunately did not come up in committee. If passed, this legislation effectively would cut the interest rates on payday loans in half by giving borrowers more time to pay them back. We anticipate that similar legislation will be introduced next year.

Public transportation

State leaders are finally starting to take note of the negative implications that a lack of access to reliable transportation has on advancing many statewide goals, including increasing workforce participation. Arise has long acknowledged that robust state investment into public transportation would improve the quality of life for many Alabamians. Transit availability affects people across geographies, incomes and races. Yet Alabama remains one of only a few states without state funding for public transportation.

The Legislature took steps to remedy this by creating the Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF) in 2018. However, the law did not provide an initial appropriation or dedicated funding source. If funded, the PTTF could jump-start increased federal investment that requires non-federal matching dollars.

Arise urged state leaders to invest $20 million of Alabama’s remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds into the PTTF. But those efforts came up short in the last year. Even so, Arise will continue to explore ways to convince lawmakers that investing in the PTTF will allow the state to improve quality of life for everyone. Our policy team plans to produce a report on the state of public transit in Alabama. And the Montgomery Transportation Coalition, an Arise member group, has urged support for a proposal to help fund public transit through a $1 assessment on license plates.

Voting rights

Arise and advocacy partners this year successfully blocked legislation that posed a threat to voting rights in Alabama. HB 209 would have criminalized many efforts to assist voters with absentee ballot applications or completed ballots. While we are happy this bill did not pass, we anticipate that it will be reintroduced next year.

This session, lawmakers considered legislation to make absentee voting easier. The bill would have eliminated the requirement to complete an affidavit when submitting an absentee ballot. Though this legislation ultimately did not make it out of the House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee, it was significant that a bill to make voting access easier received committee discussion.

This year also saw continued efforts to improve the voting rights restoration process for people who previously lost their right to vote due to a felony conviction. A restoration bill passed the Senate and made it to the House Judiciary Committee. Unfortunately, the sponsors then had to make a strategic decision to table the bill due to alarming amendments and modifications during the legislative process. We look forward to working with the bill’s sponsors and other advocates to strategize ways to help get this legislation over the finish line next year.

Compiled by Akiesha Anderson, policy director; Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst; Dev Wakeley, worker policy advocate; Mike Nicholson, senior policy analyst

Arise thrives on its membership

By Jacob Smith, advancement and operations director

When you give to Alabama Arise, you join as a member. We’re grateful for your giving: A significant percentage of our financial support comes from people like you. And we’re especially grateful for your membership.

Our members are important to us because, as we often say, people are our power. This month, members are coming together at our Annual Meeting to vote on our legislative priorities, approve our budget and elect our board of directors.

Because of this, we like to report regularly on who our members are. We have 1,412 members across the state in nearly three-quarters of Alabama counties. Through our membership survey (which you can fill out at bit.ly/alarise), we know our membership is 22% people with low incomes, 5% people under age 30 and 23% people of color.

Part of this membership is a dedicated group who sustain our work year-round. These are our recurring donors. More than 200 people give monthly to Arise, because they know it’s important for us to have the flexibility needed to focus year-round on the priorities our members choose.

Will you join this dedicated group? Visit alarise.org/donate to set up a recurring gift online or to access the monthly bank transfer form. Thank you for being a member!