House rejects substitute budget plan from Black Caucus
Alabama House of Representatives Black Caucus chairman Rep. John Knight offered a new budget plan Tuesday that’s backed by the caucus. During floor debate Tuesday on House Bill 135, Knight offered the plan to provide current-year level funding to what he called “the essential functions of government”: Medicaid, the department of corrections, public health, and law enforcement. “This budget plan is a compromise … that would allow us to fund all the entities we need to fund and establish a priority for funding those entities we have to fund as a Legislature,” Knight said. In order to reach current-year funding, Knight urged the members to consider passing Senate Bill 375 to unearmark agency funding and allow department heads greater flexibility within agency budgets. Rep. Steve Clouse, chairman of the Ways and Means General Fund, voiced concern over the agencies that would get no additional support under the substitute budget, including money to support fire departments, geological surveys, and the state oil and gas board. The House decided to table the substitute bill by a vote of 74 to 23.
Prison reform, privacy bills awaiting governor
Though the Alabama Legislature has yet to send general fund or education budgets to Gov. Robert Bentley for signature, statewide prison reform and privacy bills are among the pieces of legislation awaiting the governor’s signature. Physicians practicing in Alabama will soon see changes in licensing and fee guidelines under two measures that passed out of the statehouse this week. Senate Bill 125 eases the process of licensing physicians in multiple states and Senate Bill 167 lowers the fees that physicians pay to provide pain management services. Sen. Rodger Smitherman’s Right of Publicity Act went to the Alabama governor this week. Senate Bill 197 establishes the right to exercise commercial control over a person’s likeness and attributes of their personal identity. Last week, the Legislature sent a comprehensive plan to reduce crowding in state prisons to Bentley for signature. The governor has yet to sign Senate Bill 67, which was championed by sponsor Sen. Cam Ward and members of the Prison Reform Task Force. However, according to Rep. Steve Clouse, those reforms would not be funded under the austere budget under consideration by House members.
Alabama newspapers editorial roundup
Tuesday: The Anniston Star on being caught up in the crossfire of health care law opposition: Todd Gardenhire and Luis Lang aren’t household names, but their recent experiences with health care speak loud and clear about Obamacare and how it’s perceived by some Americans. Gardenhire is a Tennessee state senator from Chattanooga. This year, he joined his Republican colleagues on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee to kill a proposal to expand Medicaid coverage to 280,000 working Tennessee residents who can’t afford health insurance. When a proponent of the expansion pointed out that “virtually every member of the Tennessee General Assembly receives some form of tax-subsidized health care,” Gardenhire took exception. “I have very nice health care provided to me through my private employer,” he said. “My wife’s on Social Security.” Only later did the senator come to realize that, yes, the state of Tennessee is picking up a big chunk of the costs of his health insurance. According to a new report in The Tennessean, the state has paid almost $31,000 of Gardenhire’s insurance bill since 2008. The senator now says he asked to be dropped from the state coverage. There’s no form, however, to forgo the shame of being an uninformed blowhard. Lang’s story is much more heartbreaking. The Fort Mill, South Carolina, resident is in very real danger of losing his eyesight. Diabetes is the central reason for the bleeding in his eyes and a partially detached retina, according to an article in The Charlotte Observer. The problem is that Lang, 49, doesn’t have health insurance to cover the costs of surgery and the medical bills for treatment has drained his savings. Paying out-of-pocket was fine for Lang and his wife until February when he had a series of small strokes and his vision weakened. “He’s in a very bad situation,” Malcolm Edwards, Lang’s ophthalmologist, said. “The longer he waits, the poorer his results will be.” Several factors are working against Lang: Lang, a Republican, had previously defied the Obamacare mandate to purchase health insurance. By the time he applied for Obamacare, he had missed the enrollment date for this year. Unable to work and earn money as a self-employed handyman, his income is too low to qualify for subsidies to purchase private insurance. South Carolina is one of many states that has thus far refused to expand Medicaid to cover those who are trapped like Lang. (And, yes, Alabama is one of them, as well.) Who’s to blame for this crisis? Is it Lang, who by his own admission is a smoker and hasn’t been diligent in treating his diabetes? Is it South Carolina’s Republican-dominated elected leadership that refuses to expand Medicaid? It’s President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, say the Langs. “We call it the Not Fair Health Care Act,” said Mary Lang, Luis’ wife. In a larger sense, the culprit is one of political leadership at the top of the Republican Party. It’s House Republicans who voted dozens of times to repeal it. It’s a relentless judicial assault on the law by conservative activists. It’s a slate of 2016 GOP presidential wannabes promising to tear the law apart. It’s members of Congress who won’t make peace with Obamacare and yet won’t offer a viable alternative. By this measure, Gardenhire and Lang are caught in the crossfire of an ideological war that shows no sign of ceasing. Online: http://www.annistonstar.com • • • Tuesday Dothan Eagle on special needs children: There’s been a lot of gloom and doom coming out of Montgomery, where Alabama lawmakers are charged with the task of balancing the state’s General Fund and looking for ways to close a gaping divide between revenue and expenses. We’ve all heard about the possibility of shutting down half of the state parks, decimating the state trooper force and other draconian measures. One has to wonder if the threats are empty, perhaps simply saber-rattling to make tax hikes and/or gambling expansion seem like the lesser evil. Regardless, turning special needs children into pawns in a political game is unconscionable, but that’s exactly what has happened. On Monday, people gathered at Vivian B. Adams School in Ozark to protest a potential $35 million reduction in mental health funding. The number is misleading, because the loss of that $35 million would mean the state couldn’t receive another $64 million in matching funds from the federal government. Mental health care programs in Alabama would lose a whopping $99 million. Lawmakers should have to see firsthand how their decisions will affect Alabama families. They had an opportunity in Ozark on Monday, but only one of 140 Alabama lawmakers showed up: Rep. Steve Clouse, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who lives in Ozark. We applaud Rep. Clouse for attending the rally and speaking with concerned residents, and appreciate his willingness to deliver their message to his colleagues in Montgomery. We wish he could take the clients of Vivian B. Adams School with him. If Alabama lawmakers had to look into the faces of clients like Diane Kautz‘s daughter, for whom the school is the “happiest place on earth,” they’d surely find a way to keep funding intact. Online: http://www.dothaneagle.com • • • Wednesday Decatur Daily on handguns: There are few public servants we respect more than law enforcement officers. As honest Americans and Alabamians, we have reason to take note of our appreciation to the men and women who patrol our cities, counties and state. Most of us can point to at least one specific instance when an officer responded in a time of need. It’s too bad we don’t think of such moments when we elect politicians who create laws that make their jobs harder and more dangerous. The so-called Second Amendment laws passed by our politicians, who pander to our most base and sometimes irrational fears, are a shining example. It was never hard to buy a gun in Alabama. And no one ever threatened to take them away. Yet some of our least sincere, or
Robert Bentley stresses major budget cuts will ensue without quick remedy
Gov. Robert Bentley continued his crusade against the Legislature’s current budget Wednesday, issuing an announcement detailing severe cuts to Lee County unless the tax increases he is proposing — or perhaps recent a gambling expansion measure he omitted from mention — are adopted as part of an overall budget approach. “We are facing a tremendous crisis in our General Fund Budget that will impact every Alabama county if not addressed by the Legislature,” Bentley said in a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon. Specifically, the governor’s office said that Lee County — home to the city of Opelika and the college town surrounding Auburn University — would face harsh consequences, including the loss of temporary public assistance from the Department of Human Services for 405 children, layoffs for 15 court system employees, possible closing of the Lee County Armory and the Opelika Trooper Post, one of 13 Alabama state trooper posts. “I am committed to finding new revenue so our state agencies can continue to provide essential services to Alabamians. For decades, we have failed to address the way our non-education state agencies are funded,” Bentley said. “With no one-time money available to support the General Fund and debts that are owed, we have a real crisis on our hands. I encourage the residents of Lee County to let their elected representatives know that these cuts are unacceptable and will hurt the people in in Lee County.” Auburn University at Montgomery recently published a study which bolsters Sen. Del Marsh‘s proposal to allow a lottery and a handful of casinos across the state. The study suggested that such an expansion of gambling could help solve the $250 million state budget shortfall currently projected in during the next fiscal year. An initiative to do so is in the works in the Legislature, where Republican House budget chief Rep. Steve Clouse has joined 23 House Democrats in co-sponsoring an agreement that would call for a constitutional amendment that would make Alabama the 45th state in the nation to adopt some form of state lottery. The effort was the subject of a press conference convened Tuesday by Marsh.
