Alabama budget cuts target state workers, tourism

[Hannah Bell]

Recently elected Alabama Governor Robert Bentley rolled out plans last week to balance the state’s budget on the backs of working people, including public schools teachers and other state employees.
The plan calls for laying off up to 1,000 state workers, forcing teachers and others to pay an additional 2.5 percent toward their retirement, and cutting funding for parks, museums and historical sites in an effort to patch a $275 million shortfall in the current two-year budget.

The governor proposed scrapping some entire state agencies along with cuts as deep as 45 percent for others. Bentley, a Republican who ran for governor with the backing of the Alabama Education Association, also voiced his intention to eliminate benefits for state workers who defer retirement and ask them to contribute more toward their health insurance costs.

“Historical sites, tourist attractions and halls of fame are wonderful for tourism and travel, and I want you all to visit them. But they are not as important as providing health care to low-income children and elderly or keeping state troopers on the road,” he told state legislators in his first State of the State address...University of Alabama finance professor Andreas Rauterkus told Reuters that the state has one of the nation’s weakest tax bases, depending heavily on sales and excise taxes, which tend to decline heavily in an economic downturn.

Social services already operate at a bare-bones level in Alabama, as the state makes it very difficult to qualify for need-based assistance. To qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state partnership that provides some medical coverage to the indigent, out-of-work parents must live on less than 11 percent of the federal poverty income, or about $2,425 for a family of four in 2010. In other words, a family has to be teetering on starvation before being able to receive any medical benefits.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/alab-m09.shtml

FYI, for those who might question that $2425 figure, the federal poverty level for a family of 4 is $22K. The $2425 in the story is YEARLY income, not monthly income.

http://www.coverageforall.org/pdf/FHCE_FedPovertyLevel.pdf

I don't know how anyone, let alone a family of 4, can survive on $2435 a year.

[rpannier]

1. Republican who ran for governor with the backing of the Alabama Education Association

Fools

[Historic NY]

2. Doesn't tourism feed the local economy??? Pretty soon no one will go no where.