Jr League of Birmingham hosts engaging and informative roundtable series
For nearly 100 years, the Junior League of Birmingham (JLB) has been a source of constant support in the Magic City. Dating back to 1922, the now-2,500-member League has actively supplied volunteers to some of the city’s greatest needs. From volunteering during the throes of the Great Depression and World Wars, to pioneering community projects, to proffering annual community endowments — the League has played a part in it all. Staying ever true to its mission of “improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers,” the League continues to give back to the Birmingham community. This League year, JLB has hosted a series of community roundtables on important issues that matter to Alabamians — a possible Alabama lottery, legislative issues including Medicaid, predatory lending, prison reform, as well as race relations. The League took on the topic of race relations back in August, following a Pew Research Center report on the state of race relations in America. For JLB leaders, the report served as a stark reminder that the issue of racial inequality is just as urgent as ever. They hosted the event as a way to hear from community leaders to discuss racial matters affecting the community and ways to heal. “Discussion of police interactions with minority communities; institutions and interpersonal racism; and ‘safe spaces’ are dominating popular literature, film, television, talk shows and newspaper column inches. It seems everyone, everywhere, is talking about race in some capacity. The issue of racial inequality is truly not a trendy issue; it is an entrenched issue,” said a JLB press release. The roundtable, which was open to the public, featured panelists Joan Witherspoon-Norris, director of social justice at the YWCA; Lyord Watson, a preacher and philanthropist; Marquita Furness Davis, executive director for the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Development (JCCEO); and Hill Carmichael, the director of Urban Ministry. When moderator Crystal Maxena asked the first question, “Do we need to have conversations about race in Birmingham?” It was Witherspoon-Norris’ response that set the tone of the day, “So many of us are emotionally charged about race. Racism is so insidious that sometimes it’s hard to know what it is.” “There are so many indicators that racism is alive and well,” Witherspoon-Norris continued. “The systems that run our society – banking, predatory lending, education, criminal justice – every indicator says that racism is thriving. If we want to fix that so that people have a fair shot, regardless of that race, we definitely need to talk about it.” Alabama Today publisher Apryl Marie Fogel attended the event and said, “What struck me most about the event was the diversity of the panel and the audience; this contributed to a lively and informative conversation. The Junior League of Birmingham did a great job of hosting an engaging panel and of reaching out within the community to encourage a broad range of attendees each of whom pledged their support to improving race relations within our city.” Little over a month later, JLB hosted another roundtable on the hot-topic issue of a possible state lottery. There, the JLB encouraged leaders from across the state to discuss the current legislation in Montgomery surrounding the lottery and how it would effect our state and the local economy. Panelist included Joe Godfrey, Executive Director, Alabama Citizens Action Program; Nat Winn, Jr., President and CEO, Greenetrack; as well as Stephanie Bryan, Tribal Chair and CEO for the Poarch Creek Band of Indians. JLB chose to tackle the topic immediately after a proposed constitutional amendment to allow a lottery in the state of Alabama died in late August in the state Senate. Gov. Robert Bentley had proposed the lottery to help fund the state’s budget shortfall. Earlier this month, the League held its third roundtable of the “League year,” which annually spans from June-May, where they took a look at issues being discussed in the current legislative session of the Alabama Legislature including Medicaid, predatory lending and prison reform. Guin Robinson, Director of Community Outreach, Jefferson Community College, moderated the panel and discussion, which featured several members of the state legislature including state Reps. David Faulkner, Connie Rowe, Rod Scott, Rodger Smitherman and Jabo Waggoner. This particular roundtable, open to the public, became heated as voters starting shouting at the panel over the fact the Legislature has not raised the state’s minimum wage as well as Gov. Robert Bentley‘s prison construction plan. Fogel said, “I believe there’s a perception when it comes to the junior league that it’s just a social organization but what I’ve learned from the outreach and hosting of these events is that first and foremost this is a group women invested in making our city and the surrounding area stronger, safer and better.”
Jim McClendon to introduce Alabama Lottery bill in special session
Alabama could be getting a state lottery soon, with the money going to fund Medicaid and schools statewide. State Sen. Jim McClendon, a Springville Republican, will be sponsoring a bill for the upcoming special session of the Alabama Legislature, scheduled to meet starting Aug. 15. A study by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office says McClendon’s lottery proposal could raise as much as $427 million annually. If approved, the revenue would be used toward a projected $85 million budget shortfall for Medicaid in 2017, as well as add $100 million annually for Alabama schools. “It is time to let the people vote on a lottery,” McClendon said in a statement Tuesday. “For thousands of families and children, the Medicaid budget shortfall is a personal crisis that we must solve now. “This lottery proposal will resolve the Medicaid problem and inject $100 million annually in new funding for our classrooms.” The bill would authorize Gov. Robert Bentley to negotiate a compact with the Poarch Creek Indians, and allow electronic lottery terminals in Birmingham and Mobile, as well as Macon and Greene counties. There would also be a bond issue based on expected revenue from the lottery, estimated at $75-85 million, to help close Medicaid’s 2017 budget gap. “Every year, thousands of Alabamians drive to neighboring states to play lotteries,” McClendon added. “That is money that should stay right here in our own state, to fund Alabama’s hospitals and schools. “And let me dispel a persistent myth: creating a lottery will not open the door to casino gaming. There is not one single instance in the United States where creating a lottery opened the door to legalizing gambling.” To be included on the November ballot, a lottery bill would have to pass by Aug. 24. Final approval will then be up to voters. “We must once and for all solve problems that have held our state back for decades. The state of Alabama has not and cannot at this time pay for the most basic services we must provide to our people,” Bentley said in a video message posted on social media July 27. “I am asking that each legislator allow the people back home the right to vote on a statewide lottery. I have faith in the people of this state to make the right and the best choice. I trust the voters and our legislators must do the same.”
Alabama business roundup: Headlines from across state – 8/3/16 edition
According to federal figures where does lotto money really go? Who’s hiring 500 new employees? Answers to these questions and more in today’s business roundup: AL.com: Amid Alabama lottery proposal, federal figures show where lotto money really goes Alabama is apparently so broke that it might be forced to adopt a lottery to raise funds, giving up on a longtime abstinence that would see it join a group of 44 other states where the ‘game of chance’ is not only legal, but raising crucial revenues for services such as education, tax relief and infrastructure costs. Each year tens of billions of dollars are raised across the country by lotteries in order to plug holes in state budgets, allowing lawmakers to keep taxes low and state agencies functioning. But despite claims by most states that lotteries are largely charitable organizations, the latest (2014) U.S. Census Bureau statistics on lottery revenues show that only around 33 percent of money raised by the 44 states is made available to spend on state services. The rest, around 62 percent, is given in prizes, while around 5 percent is set aside for administrative fees. As part of his pitch for an Alabama lottery, Gov. Robert Bentley made an impassioned plea late last week claiming that a state lottery would bring in as much as $225 million a year, which he said would be spent on services for children, the mentally ill, law enforcement and “those in the most need,” as well as the contributing to the state’s General Fund. “The time has come for us to find a permanent solution,” said Bentley. “This solution will provide funding that we can count on for year after year without ever having to raise your taxes or put one more band-aid on our state’s money problems.” And those so-called money problems are becoming more acute every year as Alabama looks to deal with debt that exceeds $60 billion. While the scant details of Bentley’s lottery spending plan are generally in line with how other states claim they spend lotto revenues, his figure of $225 million would depend on what percentage of lottery revenue the state will allocate to prizes, administration and to state services. In nearby Louisiana, which has a similar population and economy to Alabama, the state generated around $432 million in lottery revenues in 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of that, $160.5 million went to the state treasury, $237 million was given out in prizes and $26 million spent on administering the lottery. What isn’t immediately clear is whether Bentley’s $225 million estimate is before or after administrative costs and prizes are discounted. The North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries offers a general view of how each state spends its lottery revenue, although there is little centralized documentation that shows the exact details of how every dollar is spent. However, some state lottery websites do offer more information on post-prize expenditure. For example, California directs around $1.6 billion of its state services-assigned revenue toward education, while in Pennsylvania almost all of the $1 billion it raises for state spending is used exclusively on caring for pensioners. But even these high figures account for a far less amount that what is given out in prize money. But there are some states that buck the big-prize trend. For example, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Oregon, and South Dakota divert around 60 percent of all lottery cash raised toward state-funded programs, such as education, tourism, economic development, gambling addiction and tax reductions. Only a very small amount finds its way to prizewinners. In West Virginia, for example, $509 million of the $654 million pot was directed into state services in 2014, while only $111 million was given in prizes. The rest, $33 million, was spent on administrative costs. Whether or not Alabama will be similar to one of these states is yet to be seen. Read more here. Alabama News Center: How Google came to choose Alabama for its $600 million data center Getting Alabama to come out on top of Google’s own search results for its high-tech data center took thousands of emails and texts, 20 visits from the company to north Alabama and the last-minute signature of a mayor named Bubba. The key players in the recruitment of the $600 million Google data center to Jackson County gave a behind-the-scenes look at the twists and turns the project took before settling on 500 acres at a power plant that was shutting down. The recruitment was the subject of a panel discussion at last week’s Economic Development Association of Alabama summer conference. It was a project shrouded in secrecy. At various times, it went by the codename of “Project Zebra” and “Project Spike.” Officials involved in the recruitment had to sign nondisclosure agreements even though they didn’t know the name of the company. In April 2014, Tennessee Valley Authority project manager Spencer Sessions took the first call and began trying to find sites that matched the criteria. Bob Smith, project manager with the Alabama Department of Commerce, was brought in a few weeks later. He said Alabama had won a fair number of data centers the previous four years — projects that were heavy with capital investment because of the technology infrastructure, but don’t have the same number of employees as large manufacturing plants. Site Selection magazine, an economic development trade publication, had cited Alabama’s success in the data center arena. Smith said officials recognized that the state’s incentives were more geared toward manufacturing but needed to focus on data centers. The state passed such incentives in 2012. Alabama now had a new tool in the toolbox and waited for an opportunity to use it. Meanwhile, TVA had a site in Jackson County certified as ready for a data center. “We had this certified data center site right next to the community college,” said Dus Rogers, president and CEO of the Jackson County Economic Development Authority. The only problem is Project Zebra (or was it Project Spike by this time?) didn’t care for that site and wanted officials to think
Jim McClendon, Alan Harper to announce Alabama lottery bill
Republicans state Sen. Jim McClendon of Springville and Rep. Alan Harper of Northport plan a joint press conference Tuesday to discuss their legislation to allow the public to vote on a statewide lottery. The press conference will take place 10 a.m. in the Press Room on the third floor of the Alabama State House. Representatives in McClendon’s office were directed to inform anyone seeking information on the bill to attend Tuesday’s press conference. Harper was attending to a personal matter and unable to discuss the legislation in detail. A state lottery has been a divisive issue since former-Gov. Don Siegelman attempted to pass such legislation during his tenure. During last year’s budget struggles, when two Special Sessions were called to address a multimillion dollar hole in the state’s general fund, a proposal by Republican Sen. Paul Sanford of Huntsville to have Alabama join Powerball, Mega Millions and other state lotteries died in the Senate Committee on Tourism and Marketing. McClendon and Harper’s bill will be introduced in the 2016 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature, which begins Feb. 2.
