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!