Governor Talks Poverty Reduction, Prisons in Birmingham Speech
Governor Robert Bentley spoke about reducing poverty, improving rural healthcare and consolidating prisons in a Friday afternoon speech in Birmingham at the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama’s annual meeting. The remarks were largely a recap of his State of the State Address on Tuesday.
Bentley says despite Alabama’s high-profile economic develop projects such as landing an Airbus plant in Mobile or Google’s planned $600 million data center in Jackson County, the state does poorly when it comes to health and poverty measures.
“We may be first in football teams but we’re dead last in quality of life issues,” says Bentley.
Bentley called for increased funding of Alabama’s voluntary pre-K program. He says the program provides a foundation for a child’s education.
“Those children who go to a first class pre-K program, they read early. They do their math well. They are less likely to have to have special education services. They graduate. They go to college and they stay out of trouble,” says Bentley.
Bentley says he’ll work over the next two years to build broadband infrastructure across the state. He says federal matching funds are available through the Federal Communications Commission’s E-Rate program.
“You will not get economic development in these rural areas out there that are so poor right now unless we have technology,” says Bentley.
Bentley also says healthcare services in rural communities need to be improved and proposed student loan forgiveness for doctors willing to work in rural areas.
In his speech, he declined to discuss Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which could provide relief to poorer, rural communities. But in remarks to the media afterward he says he’s focused on current plans to transfer management of Alabama’s Medicaid system to what are called Regional Care Organizations.
“We’re going to make Medicaid work well,” says Bentley. “Outcomes will be better for the people who are on Medicaid. There’s where we need to put our emphasis right now.”
Bentley referred to Alabama’s overcrowded prison system as a problem “that is hanging around our neck.” Alabama prisons are at nearly twice designed capacity.
Bentley outlined plans to consolidate the state’s prisons into three new facilities for men and one new women’s prison. He says that would produce $50 million in savings which could support a bond to fund construction.
Bentley says the new facilities would allow the state to close the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. The prison was the part of a Justice Department probe into allegations of prisoner abuse and sexual misconduct.
“We’re going to slam the door shut on Tutwiler,” says Bentley.
A New Orleans garden paid hundreds of dollars in fees for a sewer that doesn’t exist
Galvez Garden owner Lissie Stewart has been fighting the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board over inaccurate billing for years.
Alabama coal mine keeps digging after hundreds of fines and a fatal explosion
Following the death of a grandfather, Crimson Oak Grove Resources has left a community afraid for their homes and lives. An expert warns one resident may need to evacuate her home while she still can.
Florida’s 6-week abortion ban will have a ‘snowball effect’ on residents across the South
Abortion rights advocates say the ban will likely force many to travel farther for abortion care and endure pregnancy and childbirth against their will.
Attitudes among Alabama lawmakers softening on Medicaid expansion
Alabama is one of ten states which has not expanded Medicaid. Republican leaders have pushed back against the idea for years.
Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
The American Lung Association's "State of the Air" report shows some metro areas in the Gulf States continue to have poor air quality.
Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
