Brinson: Keep the earth green

Alabama Dr. Randy Brinson, who chairs the evangelical voting outreach group "Redeem the Vote," wrote Sunday in the Birmingham News that Christians had a responsibility to back pro-environmental proposals to keep the earth green:

"We've reached a crossroads where we must confront our addiction to oil, recognize the impact of it on our world and reconcile how we, as a nation, should move into the next generation. Protecting and preserving our environment and the Earth are not partisan issues; they are American issues. We have a moral responsibility to leave this world better than we inherited it."

Last year, Brinson, who also heads the Christian Coalition of Alabama, supported the Center for a Better South's book of environmental ideas, Getting Greener.

What's on your ballot?

Re that previous post. I realize it's not Alabama that is making Feb. 5 super. More than 20 states head to the polls that day.
I'm curious. How's the campaigning playing out in your state? What about our friends in South Carolina, who saw the circus pull up stakes and leave town Saturday night? What lessons do you take away from the South Carolina primaries?

Anxious to get in the game

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee paid a visit to Alabama over the weekend, the first major party candidate to visit the state since the Iowa caucus at the start of the year.
If the big turnouts to see Huckabee in Birmingham on Saturday and Democrat Barack Obama in Birmingham on Sunday are any indicator, voters in the state are ready for the Super Tuesday close-up on Feb. 5.
It's a big change from 2004, when Alabamians voted in presidential primaries on June 1, well after the major parties had wrapped up their picks.
The entire electoral clock has been moved up. In 1996, Iowa made its presidential selections first, on Feb. 12. By the end of January 2008, eight states will have had their say on who will be on the November general election ballot.

Grisham's take on jackpot justice

John Grisham, attorney, novelist and native Mississippian, appeared on Bill Moyers Journal program on public TV this weekend.
Grisham covered a variety of topics in a fascinating interview with Moyers, expressing a progressive outlook on fixing the problems of the country in general and the South in particular. His new book is called The Appeal. In it he describes the way some states fill the judicial benches on their courts. Here's a portion from the transcript:

JOHN GRISHAM: It's called THE APPEAL. You'll love it. It's got more politics than anything I've written. It's tons of politics, tons of legal intrigue. It's about — all my books are based, in some degree on something that really happened. There's an element in truth in all these books. This is about the election of a Supreme Court justice in the state of Mississippi.
Thirty some odd states elect their judges, which is a bad system. Because-- if they allow private money. Just like a campaign. Just like the campaign we're watching now for president. You got corporate people throwing money in. You got big individuals. You got, you know, cash coming in to elect a judge who may hear your case. Think about that. You've got a case pending before the court and you want to reshape the structure of the court, well, just to get your guy elected. And that's happened in several states. Big money comes in, take out a bad judge, or an unsympathetic judge. Replace him with someone who may be more friendly to you. And he gets to rule in your case without a conflict.
BILL MOYERS: Is this the story of the corporation that dumps the toxic poisons into the stream. Ruins the community's drinking water?
JOHN GRISHAM: It starts off with a verdict. Chapter one is a verdict where this big chemical company has polluted this small town to the point where you can't even drink the water. It's become a cancer cluster. A lot of people have died. And so there's a big lawsuit. And that's the opening of the book. And then it's all the intrigue about what that company does. Because the guy who owns that company doesn't like the composition of the Supreme Court. And he realizes he can change it. And so--
BILL MOYERS: By buying an election. He can buy the judge.

You betcha. Alabama, Mississippi's neighbor to the east, know all about it. In 2006, two candidates for chief justice of the state Supreme Court went through all most $6 million. That's enough hard-fought campaigning to merit its own novel.

Pending Budget Shortfalls

Seventeen states, including five Southern ones, are projecing that state budget revenues will fall below estimates for the current fiscal year. These shortfalls mean that state legislators will face hard choices about taxes and spending as they prepare their budgets for fiscal year 2009.

This finding comes from a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a policy organization in Washington, D.C.

According to CBPP, the following Southern states have released definite estimates showing revenue shortfalls: Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and Virginia.

Expressed as a percentage of state general funds, projected shortfalls range from 9.2 percent in Alabama to 2.4 percent in South Carolina.

While shortfalls always are problematic for states, shortfalls that occur during economic downturns are even more severe. This is because the resulting tax increases and spending reductions often exacerbate a downturn. As CBPP has observed:

When states cut spending, they lay off employees, cancel contracts with vendors, eliminate or lower payments to businesses and nonprofit organizations that provide direct services and cut benefit payments to individuals ... This directly removes demand from the economy. Tax increases also remove demand from the economy by reducing the amount of money people have to spend.

Survey: Southern States Best For Business

This week, Chief Executive Magazine released a poll of CEOs asking them to rank the best and worst states to do business. Southern states received high marks. Seven of the top ten best states in which to do business are in the South. Notable rankings include Texas as the overall best state for business, with North Carolina and Virginia following closely at 3rd and 4th respectively. Alabama also received high marks, ranking as the 12th best state for business. The growing populations and business-friendly tax codes of these southern states are cited as major reasons for their appeal.

Overall, the message CEOs are sending is that over-taxed and over-regulated states are not conducive to the health of their businesses,” said Ed Kopko, CEO and publisher, Chief Executive Group.“This is the message they’ve been communicating since our poll started in 2005. However, in states like California and New York, where we are increasingly facing a shrinking population, the message seems to have fallen on deaf ears, as CEOs continue to be extremely frustrated with the business-unfriendly practices in these states.”

As the South moves into the globalized economy, the challenge for Southern Progressives is to try to institute reforms that take advantage of the South’s business-friendly reputation without curbing the qualities that make the region attractive in the first place.

Southern sunset?

Creative Loafing's John F. Sugg offers bad news for the Red State South:

Two very daunting facts will explode like bombs on the post-election morning of Nov. 5, cratering every Southern state with the possible exception of Florida: The Democrats no longer need Dixie to claim a national majority, and that marginalization means the South will rate a very, very low priority in Washington.

The whole column is here.

King Day editorial roundup

What Alabama newspapers are saying on the King Holiday.

The Decatur Daily writes:

The main shortcoming of some politicians who embrace Martin Luther King Day is that they are slow to commit to some of Dr. King’s other causes, such as helping poor people and getting out of useless and crippling wars.

Mobile's Press-Register writes:

Dr. King's campaign broadly challenged Americans to end racism, fight injustices and eliminate poverty to "make America what it ought to be." It was a righteous effort that remains unfinished.
All of us can help complete Dr. King's noble mission to make America better. Volunteering on the holiday that honors him would be a way to endorse his goals and celebrate his dreams for the nation.

The Anniston Star writes:

The major Democratic presidential candidates, Obama and Clinton, lost track of that goal a few weeks back. Their respective campaigns waded into a mucky swamp of parry and counter-parry over Dr. King and his rightful place in the civil rights struggle. ...
Such spats fail to feed one hungry child, educate one needy student or inspire the nation's population to its better selves. Those make the to-do list for all of us to act on at King Day and in the days following.

A Look Behind the Curtain

The Federal Reserve System is one of America's most important yet least understood institutions. A quasi-public banking system, the "Fed" acts as America's central bank and manages the nation's money supply through a variety of mechanisms, such as increasing (or decreasing) the amount of money in circulation, setting certain interest rates and adopting particular reserve requirements.

In a profile of Ben Bernanke, the South Carolina native currently serving as the Fed's chairman, today's issue of The New York Times Magazine provides a rare glimpse into how the Fed behaves and the logic (or lack thereof) behind its recent efforts to use monetary policy to address a variety of mounting economic problems.

While not specifically about the South, the article sheds light on a pivotal institution that will play, for better or worse, a major role in the nation's emerging economic storm and take actions that will directly impact the employment and financial prospects of families across the country. And yet few people actually know what the Fed does.

Voter ID issue remains controversial in Mississippi

The battle about whether voters should be required to show identification at the polls is a legal matter now, but the state Legislature may decide the outcome.

Despite a recent federal court ruling that says lawmakers are under no immediate mandate to enact the change, heavy hitters in Mississippi politics say they'll try again to pass a voter ID bill this session.

"I can't believe we've spent so much time and energy arguing about this. Who could be against it?" incoming Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant said. "Most of us already have a photo ID. We call it a driver's license."

Critics counter they're ready to fight any legislation, though.

There are a lot of people who are not for this because of the struggles they have faced in the past trying to vote," said Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood.

Read the full story by Jackson, Mississippi's The Clarion-Ledger reporter Leah Rupp www.clarionledger.com

Climate change in Bama

Mobile's Press-Register newspaper reports on a new study examining climate change impact in Alabama. Reporter Sean Reilly writes:

Dauphin Island will be gone, submerged beneath the rising waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Chilton County peaches? Only a memory as central Alabama becomes too hot to grow them. North Alabama's hardwood forests of oak, hickory and walnut could retreat out of the state and part of the Black Belt may turn to desert.
Such changes would take many years to play out, if they occur at all, under a forecast by Larry Davenport, a Samford University biologist who will present his findings this week at a climate change conference in the nation's capital.

The professor's full report is here.

Jobs ... with low wages

UPDATE: Briding the Gap is now online.

Alabama Arise, an advocacy group on behalf of low-income Alabamians, delivers some sobering economic news this morning. Its new report, Bridging the Gap, finds:

More than one-third of all working families in Alabama are low-income, earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold.
Though employment opportunities are increasing, the majority of jobs available to working Alabamian are in low-wage sectors.
Alabama’s public policies have failed to make available to low-income workers the education, skills certification or training necessary to compete in a 21st-century economy.
Alabama’s budgeting and taxation processes have failed to provide the resources to support policies that can assist workers in meeting their families’ needs and place a disproportionate tax burden on low-income workers.

Its recommended corrections deserve attention:

Alabama should increase its need-based financial assistance for postsecondary education, with a target of providing assistance to at least 50 percent of those eligible. Until the state is able to provide full funding for need-based financial assistance, at least 25 percent of such assistance should be reserved for adult learners.
Alabama should modify its industrial tax credit statutes to require qualifying industries to target a certain percentage of newly created jobs toward low-income workers. The credits could increase according to the percentage of low-income workers hired beyond the targeted level.
To inform its citizens of the full costs and benefits of state economic development efforts, Alabama should require an industry-specific annual report of taxpayer-provided incentives and qualifying tax credits.
Alabama should modify its requirements for corporate tax credits to require that qualifying industries provide wages that equal the prevailing average Alabama wage and provide health insurance benefits.
Alabama should raise the income cap for Medicaid participation by working families to 130 percent of the federal poverty level (equal to the income cap for Food Stamps).
Alabama should raise the threshold for state income tax to the federal poverty level by modifying dependent and standard deductions. Those changes should be indexed to inflation to ensure ongoing tax fairness.

There's a lot to chew. Here's one takeaway to start with. The report finds:

For most of this decade, Alabama’s unemployment rate has been consistently below the national average. With job opportunities increasing, and an unemployment rate that approached full employment levels, one would expect Alabamians to enjoy an increase in earnings, but that has not been the case for the average worker. The median household income for Alabama declined by 5 percent between 2000-01 and 2004-05, falling from $39,797 to $37,502 in inflation-adjusted dollars.
The saying "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer" rings especially true in Alabama. The state ranks 7th worst in the nation in terms of income inequality, with the income limit for those in the bottom quintile at $24,388 and the threshold for the top quintile at $89,513.
(Emphasis added.)

While this low-wage problem is acute in Alabama, other states are feeling the pain. Expect this to become a major theme in the 2008 presidential election.

Debating the Future

The pace of North Carolina's gubernatorial race accelerated last week when five primary candidates -- 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats -- participated in two separate forums sponsored by UNC-TV, the statewide PBS network.

Focused on the topic of the economy, this was the first of three forums that UNC-TV is hosting between now and the May primaries. While the three Republican candidates spoke mainly about standard GOP economic prescriptions, the two Democratic ones quickly turned away from economic issues and instead focused on negative personal criticisms.

Click here to view the UNC-TV forums from January 10, 2008.

Click here to hear North Carolina Public Radio's recap of the events.

Southern states improve education policies

Education Week released its annual Quality Counts assessment about the state of education in America, and several Southern states were found to have made marked improvement in their education policies. Of the thirteen states in the top tier of rankings, six are in the South (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, South Carolina and Georgia).

As part of the analysis, states were graded on their efforts to align K-12 schooling with earlier and later stages of education and the workplace. According to the report, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, and West Virginia were among the states that made the greatest strides in this area by implementing at least 10 of the 14 alignment policies tracked in this year’s survey.

South Carolina earned the highest grade in the teaching profession category (followed by Arkansas), for its efforts to institute "state accountability for quality, incentives to attract and keep talent and allocate it equitably across schools, and efforts to build and support teaching capacity." Arkansas, Florida, and Georgia were among only five states that "require all schools to notify parents when their child is in a class taught by a teacher not qualified in that subject." Only North Carolina and South Carolina "reduce the workload during a teacher’s formative first year," and along with Rhode Island, they are also the only states that "publicly report school-by-school information about working conditions or school climate based, in part, on teacher surveys."

Mississippi is the only Southern state ranked in the lowest tier.

Tax bill on cigarette, food taxes doubtful in Mississippi

Passing a law this year that would lower grocery taxes and increase cigarette taxes in Mississippi appears doubtful after two years of legislative debate and gubernatorial opposition - despite the bill's bipartisan support and popularity among voters.

Some legislators who pushed a bill that would halve the 7 percent grocery tax and raise the 18-cent-per-pack cigarette tax to $1 have muted their support, although a few said they will make a third attempt. Others said they will champion different legislation now that statewide elections are over.

Read full article by Natalie Chandler published in the January 6, 2008 edition of Jackson Mississippi's daily newspaper, The Clarion-Ledger. http://www.clarionledger.com/

The 2008 Legislative Session began Tuesday, January 8.

Ugly side of immigration debate

Last year the Alabama Legislature created a 21-member state panel with the mission of probing deeper into the matter of undocumented workers and their impact.The optimist hopes the state is sincerely wrestling with handling the problem. The pessimist, armed with the knowledge of how Alabama has operated in the past, is not so confident.

Joint Interim Patriotic Immigration Commission, the panel's John Birch Society-sounding name, invited the public to Huntsville, Ala., last week.

The proceedings took an ugly turn as members of the public blamed all sorts of social ills on illegal immigration. Hispanic speakers were jeered and told to leave. The AP report noted:

Two hours into the public hearing, Jose Guerrero of Athens became one of the few Hispanic speaker to approach the microphone. He told the audience he felt like a goldfish in a bowl of piranha.
Guerrero, who was born in the U.S., praised the United States and asked of the panel only one thing: "Tell the governor there are Hispanic citizens out there, too."

It's important to recall that the New York Times recently lauded Huntsville as a city more progressive than Alabama's reputation. We'd hate to see what happens when the panel meets in a less-enlightened venue.

Update: The Huntsville Times has editorialized on the nasty hearing.

Surprise, surprise, surprise

I typically find the rest-of-the-nation-laughs-at-us Southern mindset stale and uninteresting. While Southerners may be unfairly stereotyped, it's nothing unique to this region.

That said I found this newspaper front page (from a Rupert Murdoch-owned paper no less) slightly off-putting.

Mike Huckabee is a out of step with the American mainstream on many counts. However, he is not a typical GOP Southern politician. His challenge to the GOP status quo is reflected by ferocity with which the country club conservative set is attacking him.

Who you calling Gomer, pal? And would you be willing to deal in regional stereotypes concerning other candidates?

(Small personal note: It's been awhile since I blogged here. Thanks to Andy Brack for welcoming back this prodigal blogger.)

South Projected to Gain Congressional Clout

The Associated Press reports on the political ramifications of the South's rapid population growth. North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Texas are all projected to gain at least one seat in The U.S. House following the 2010 Census.

The power shift would continue a long-term trend and has been predicted for years. But the latest population estimates provide the clearest picture yet of the likely winners and losers.

Depending on what happens in the next few years, Texas could gain as many as four additional seats, according to projections from Election Data Services and Polidata, another national consulting firm. Florida could pick up two, while Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina could add one each. Louisiana remains in danger of dropping a seat after population losses from Hurricane Katrina.

While Southern States and their Congressional Representatives tend to be more conservative, the region's growth does not automatically assure a larger number of conservative representatives in Washington. Because of the nature of the growth (from immigration, the North East, and Midwest) the redistricting battles in Southern legislatures should be heated and partisan.

A Brief Moment in the Sun

Not long after the votes are counted on Tuesday, the nation's presidential candidates will abandon the cold and snow of New Hampshire for the mild weather of South Carolina, home of the first-in-the-South presidential primaries.

Both the Republican and Democratic contests -- slated for January 19 and January 26, respectively -- have the potential to shape the national races and advance the campaigns of native Southerners Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and John Edwards of North Carolina. Moreover, the Democratic primary has the potential to make history, should U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, an African-American man from Illinois, win.

Yet South Carolina's moment in the national spotlight will be a fleeting one, according to a column by veteran reporter Lee Bandy of The State. Bandy argues that the GOP's lock on the presidential vote in South Carolina ensures that no candidate will pay much attention to the Palmetto State after the primaries. Consequently, South Carolina's 4 million residents -- like Southerners in general -- will be relegated to the sidelines as a pivotal presidential election unfolds.

Debunking the FairTax

Chuck Norris may like the FairTax, but the recent debate about the FairTax has deified the fair but regressive tax that ignores one's ability to pay, forcing those who make little shell out as much as those who are rollin' in it. Since demonizing the IRS and lowering taxes make for appealing sound bites, the FairTax, traditionally favored by fringe conservatives, has caught on with some, but others are warning of its dangers.

Atlanta Journal Constitution [12/28/07]

Fair Tax advocates say instituting a 23 percent national sales tax would provide the same revenue to the government as income taxes do, but give back to taxpayers more of their own income.
Buckley, a tax attorney and accountant from Smyrna who self-published his own book deriding the Fair Tax, said government studies have already shown that the tax would have to be at least double what advocates propose to deliver its promised benefits.
“Our people need to know how hard a … Fair Tax would hit retirees and the middle class,” Buckley said in a statement Friday. “While the current tax system is a complex mess, the Fair Tax proposal is not the answer.

The New Republic [12/13/07]

Unlike every other sales tax in the world, the FairTax actually applies to everything--every pencil, every tank--the government buys. Unfortunately, the FairTax proposal doesn't take into account this increase in government spending. Thus, it will either provoke a massive cut in federal spending or a massive increase in taxes.
And what about the poor who bare the brunt of this highly regressive tax? The FairTax would track every household's monthly income and then cut checks to minimize the pain, a logistical challenge that will ultimately resemble some welfare state nightmare. What's more, this would cost gobs of money, forcing further cuts in spending.

While the economic effect of a flat national sales tax is unclear, it's unlikely that the regressive tax would be a "magic wand releasing us from pain and unfairness" as one recent Iowa lovechild contends.

Check out "Doing Better: Progressive tax reform for the American South" (free to download) for ways your state can improve its tax code.