http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1154251112171250.xml&coll=2 – Records reveal community colleges paid lobbying firms in spite of ban on such activities by State Board.
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1154251211171250.xml&coll=2 – Article profiles Birmingham organization World of Opportunity, an organization that helps low income individuals with education and job skills programs.
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1154251466171250.xml&coll=2 – “The Political Notebook” from The Birmingham News.
http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1154251499171250.xml&coll=2 – Editorial calls for Alabama to follow the lead of North Carolina and create a special commission “to investigate cases where the wrong person may have been convicted of a crime.”
http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1154251457171250.xml&coll=2 – Commentary by Revenue Commissioner sees sales tax holiday as boon to both economy and consumers.
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1154251209171240.xml&coll=3 – PACs linked to utility provides big funding in PSC races.
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060730/gop.shtml - GOP ads target House Speaker’s reelection campaign in home district.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060730/OPINION01/607300302/1012/OPINION - Editorial expresses concern over state’s unfunded liability for employee health insurance.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060730/NEWS/607300344/1012/editorial1 - “Southern Exposure”, Dana Beyerle’s weekly political column for the NYTimes regional papers.
FROM TODAY’S ANNISTON STAR:
A single town, but a world of change
By Brian Lyman
Star Capitol Correspondent
07-30-2006
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Charlie Simmons owns Charlie’s Clothing Store in Sylacauga. ‘It’s already hurting us,’ he said. ‘It could be gas prices, but this month’s been extremely slow. I guess people are nervous about it, holding onto their money.’ Photo: Kevin Qualls/The Anniston Star
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SYLACAUGA — The factory’s days ended with a whimper.
Avondale Mills’ sprawling complex on Avondale Avenue was all but deserted Tuesday afternoon. On one side, trailers bearing the red, white and blue logo of Avondale sat idle. Most of the buildings were deserted.
Two churches on 10th Street displayed signs of support:
“AVONDALE ASSOCIATES: OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU” and “AVONDALE: THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!”
Once a flagship in Alabama’s growing, and later booming, textiles industry, the Sylacauga mill that saw the heyday of the loom and its lint has closed another chapter in the state’s economic history.
While the story is by now a familiar one, the tie to Alabama’s past is what made Avondale’s operation in Sylacauga seem larger, more resilient, than smaller or newer mills.
After all, Sylacauga residents reasoned, the man who set Avondale on its original course would later be a governor. Other plants went to Mexico, later farther south in Central America, and caused the mill workers to wonder about their peers, but Sylacauga’s Avondale – with the red, white and blue logo – seemed set to endure.
But now Avondale’s former credit union is a re-employment center. It attracted a great number of people in Avondale’s last days, but the mill itself was empty. The hourly employees had clocked their last shift the previous Friday; only supervisors remained on the final day.
“We’ve known for two months,” said Dean Drake, a grading and packing supervisor driving into the factory Tuesday. “But now it’s set in that it’s real.”
A colleague said she had been at the plant every day for four decades.
“It’s just a sad time,” she said before driving away from the plant. “I’ve been here for 40 years, and it’s just real bad.”
Skilled workers needed
While Avondale Mill’s situation is bad, the picture for Alabama manufacturing is mixed.
Despite the high-profile arrival of automobile companies like Hyundai, Honda and Mercedes-Benz, the state has lost nearly 55,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. According to the Manufacturers’ News, an Illinois-based manufacturing information company, Alabama lost 4,365 manufacturing jobs in 2005, a little over 1 percent of the total jobs in the sector, despite adding 54 plants.
Most people, when asked, will point to free trade agreements and overseas competition for the losses. Many, like AFL-CIO Alabama president Stewart Burkhalter, blame China.
“You can’t take someone working under child labor, prison labor, slave labor, pay them 1 cent to 15 cents an hour and expect people to buy stuff made here,” he said. “When you have a president that says it’s good for the American economy to outsource jobs to China, I don’t believe that sets us on a level playing field.”
The mass production of textiles began moving overseas several years ago to cut labor costs. Historians will point out that’s the same reason textile mills moved down to Alabama in the 1880s from New England — and why they had moved from England the generation before that.
The textile industry, however, is more than clothing, and Peter Schwartz, head of the Textile Department at Auburn University, says some sectors – particularly those that make specialty products – still are doing quite well.
“Carpets had one of their best years last year,” he said. “The fabrics that are used in disposables, hygiene products, medical products, companies like Kimberly Clark — they’re doing well. Industrial fabrics and highly engineered technical fabrics are doing well.”
Those products, however, require highly skilled workers, Schwartz said, and would not employ workers on the scale of a textile plant that produces clothing.
Ironically, Alabama’s low unemployment rate — at 3.6 percent, virtually full employment — means some firms have had a hard time filling positions.
“The other thing that’s hurting textile companies, quite honestly, are the automobile companies,” Schwartz said. “The automobile companies pay better than the textile companies, and they’re attracting the most skilled workers.
“It’s a mixed blessing with those companies.”
Investment in Alabama manufacturing soared from $1.3 billion in 2001 to $4.6 billion in 2005, mainly for plants and equipment.
“If we continue that trend, we’re going to steadily start adding jobs back,” said George Clark, the president of Manufacture Alabama, a manufacturing trade group. “The problem is, where are we going to get the workers?
Third Congressional District Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, blames the decline in Alabama manufacturing jobs on free-trade agreements such as NAFTA, and on foreign competition. Rogers voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement last year. He said he did so only after rewriting the bill to protect textiles, and after Avondale Mills assured him that CAFTA would not hurt its business.
Rogers, whose family has roots in the textiles industry, says the key to the future of Alabama’s manufacturing jobs is to expand the state’s Office of Workforce Development programs into high schools, to catch teenagers who may not be interested in or suited for college.
“The fact is, China has unfair trade practices,” says Rogers, pointing to the country’s subsidies of industries and devaluation of its currency. “Those are unfair trade practices, and we need to ensure we have protection against those.
“But we need to realize it’s not just China.”
Reopening the free-trade agreements is highly unlikely, and almost certainly would be politically toxic to anyone who did so, Schwartz said.
“The average consumer would raise holy hell because prices would go up with the imposition of tariffs,” he said. “The average American would see prices go up and raise holy hell, and I don’t think it would help the textile industry.”
A death in the family
Avondale Mills blamed the closing in part on a train derailment in South Carolina in January, 2005 that released toxic gas, killing nine and injuring 250. The derailment also did significant damage to an Avondale plant there, and the company said it could not overcome the challenges that created.
For now, the 1,100 workers who lost their jobs are trying to move on. Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Labor provided job retraining assistance, allowing workers to apply for unemployment benefits and up to two years of education. The state has set up a re-employment center in an old credit union near the former facility; Gwen Taylor, the Alabama Career Service Supervisor in charge of the facility, said they’ve had about 600 visits since the center opened three weeks ago.
“I guess some of them are still in shock,” said Taylor, sitting at desk behind what formerly was a teller’s window. “Some look at it as an opportunity to do something else. And for some, it was the only thing they’ve ever done.”
Ruben Perez, 35, sat at a table, filling out an application. He came to Sylacauga from Veracruz, Mexico, six years ago to work at Avondale. He worked his way up and became a weaver, going from $7.50 an hour to $12 an hour — money he used to support his father, mother and siblings.
“It’s sad,” he said. “This plant supported our family. It’s like a second home.”
The plant employed a number of Mexican workers, he said. Some have moved back to Mexico. Perez said he’s willing to do “anything” to earn a living. But he can’t afford to move to a larger city such as Birmingham, and he doesn’t expect to earn as much in the next job he gets.
For Sylacauga and its surrounding hill country, Avondale provided a good income.
Supervisor Dean, outside the gates on Tuesday, said she hopes to get another job. She’d be interested in going back to school for two years to get a degree. But she and others all say they want to stay in Sylacauga, Taylor said. Sylacauga is home.
“Most of these people are not interested in going some place else,” Taylor said. “I personally have not spoken with anyone who wants to go somewhere else.”
That doesn’t surprise Joe Richardson, executive director of the Sylacauga Chamber of Commerce.
“There’s an emotional impact,” Richardson said. “People are third- and fourth-generation workers there. Some never even filled out a job application. All they know is Avondale. That speaks highly of their work ethic, and it speaks highly of Avondale.”
Sylacauga, sitting on Talladega County’s southern flank, has about 12,500 residents. Developers say the town is blessed by its proximity to Alabama 21, U.S. 231 and U.S. 280. It has attracted retail business and has a relatively stable downtown area. Many former mill towns don’t have that going for them when the last whistle blows, economic experts say.
Sylacauga also has attracted nine manufacturing firms since 1997, bringing in about 1,000 jobs, said Calvin Miller, executive director of the Talladega County Economic Development Authority.
“The problem that we have is the economy is changing from textile-related to other manufacturing,” he said. “It seems that rather than getting ahead, we’re just breaking even.”
Richardson said he expects many workers to work outside Sylacauga. His goal is to keep them living in the town, he said.
Merchants along Broadway are generally taking a wait-and-see attitude. Many said that Avondale Mills, which had been shrinking for several years, had less of an impact on their business than it once did. But some could feel it regardless.
“It’s already hurting us,” said Charlie Simmons, owner of Charlie’s Clothing on Broadway in Sylacauga. “It could be gas prices, but this month’s been extremely slow. I guess people are nervous about it, holding onto their money.”
Many were philosophical about the closing. Linda Hatchett, the assistant director of the Isabel Anderson Comer Center on Broadway, worked in Avondale’s benefits department for 30 years. Now she’s surrounded by artifacts and other archaeological finds from Central Alabama’s past. There’s the Sylacauga History Room, a Pioneer Room, Civil War exhibits, World War II memorabilia and homage to local notables Jim Nabors, Bill Nichols and Gen. J.W. Crysel.
Hatchett said the closing was like losing a relative, but that people would adjust.
“This is happening all over the country,” she said. “You don’t die. You just move on.”
Insight
Another approach to sales tax: Alabama could benefit from eliminating some exemptions
By Hardy Jackson
Star staff writer
07-30-2006
There are few states that take a tax code more seriously than Alabama. Which is why Alabamians, especially those who make our laws and oversee our economy, should read and consider what Huntsville native Sarah Beth Coffey has written in "Doing Better: Progressive Tax Reform for the American South." It was recently published by the Center for a Better South, which describes itself as "a pragmatic, non-profit think tank dedicated to developing progressive ideas, policies and information for thinking leaders who want to make a difference." (Check them out at www.bettersouth.org.)
In the book, Coffey sets down 11 ideas that she feels would make things better for states and people down in Dixie. Most of them, in one way or another, apply to Alabama.
However, what Coffey asks us to consider is not just the same stuff reformers have been considering in recent years.
Which is good, because much of what reformers have been considering so far doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming law.
You know why.
Today, those financially enhanced by Southern tax codes possess the will and the resources to take down most anything that would alter the system. In Alabama, the principal concern of these individuals and interests has been protecting the privileged status that property enjoys in the state. Any effort to change this, given the strength of the opposition and the constitutional protections involved, is pretty well doomed from the start.
Which makes one think Coffey had Alabama in mind when she compiled her list, for only one item could be applied to Alabama’s property tax situation.
The other 10 focus on things Alabama has a better chance of doing— or, in a couple of cases, has already done. She presents proposals for income tax reforms, including "modernizing the income tax brackets," which we enacted during the last legislative session. Other suggestions — like closing corporate loopholes and strengthening accountability — are regular items on the agenda when the Legislature meets, and in both some progress has been made.
However, of all the things she proposes, the one that may be of the most use to Alabamians who really want to "do better" concerns the sales tax.
Alabamians are of two minds about sales taxes. Most of us agree that sales taxes are regressive because they fall heaviest on the poor. At the same time, a sizable segment of the population believes that sales taxes are fair because "everyone pays them."
In Alabama, however, not all of us pay them — at least, not always. Today a sizable hunk of the buying and selling that goes on in this state goes on untaxed — exempted largely by legislative statute.
Now, we have all heard how a mother pays a sales tax on the formula she buys for her baby but a cattleman pays no sales tax on the formula he buys to feed a calf. That example is always sure to raise the indignation level in any audience, but only once in recent years has there been much discussion of what to do about it.
Back in 1999, when our state was facing shortfalls that threatened essential services, legislators frantic for new sources of revenue began looking at sales taxes. First, someone suggested that the levy be temporarily raised to get us through the crisis. But even our most hard-hearted legislators could not stomach the idea of increasing the burden on those who were already hurting. Then someone suggested that folks in Montgomery should investigate sales tax exemptions.
Some did. And this is what they found.
Over the years, the Legislature had granted exemptions that, if set aside, would have brought in close to $1.3 billion — more than enough to carry the state through the crisis and beyond.
Of course, no one rushed out and demanded that the state do away with exemptions willy-nilly. Around $45 million of that figure came from exempting prescription drugs, which was politically untouchable.
Most of the remaining lost revenue came from exemptions to agriculture, industry and certain services.
These are the exemptions that the author of "Doing Better" feels the state should reconsider.
But how to do it?
One of the important things about this book is that instead of pounding readers with theories and plans, it carefully lays out the problems and points to alternatives that might or might not work in a particular state. Solutions are left to those "thinking leaders" for whom the book is intended.
What Coffey suggests is that legislatures should "broaden the sales tax base" by eliminating exemptions that serve targeted audiences rather than the needs of the state as a whole. In other words, cut out special-interest sales tax breaks so that more sales are taxed. This would give states additional resources with which to work and enable legislators to lower the tax on most sales so that the system is fairer. Thus, while some would find themselves paying more taxes, the majority would see sales taxes go down and state services improve.
And which activities and interests might lose their exemptions?
Well, in Alabama, industry and agriculture enjoy a host of sales tax breaks, exemptions and reductions. So do the folks who sell automotive vehicles, truck trailers, semi trailers, mobile homes, etc.
According to Coffey, "thinking leaders" should consider these exemptions in the light of state needs and determine which would stay and which would go. They should also reconsider the much-touted "sales tax holidays," a political gimmick according to some, which really saves the consumer little and costs state and local governments a lot. (There is evidence to suggest that consumers got a better deal from previous back-to-school discounts and sales, which retailers no longer offer since they have the "holiday" to attracts customers to their stores.)
She also suggests that the sales tax base be broadened to include Internet sales and the sale of services. It is estimated that Alabama loses between $179 million and $279 million a year by not taxing e-commerce and over half-a-billion dollars by exempting services — of the 168 services taxed in the United States, Alabama taxes only 37.
Therefore, states should get rid of all sales tax exemptions that serve narrow interests. If it is not good for the state as a whole, let it go. Instead of exempting calf formula and taxing baby formula, tax both, but at a lower rate.
If done right, this would give states additional and much-needed revenue. It would simplify the tax code and make it less costly to enforce. And it would enable the Legislature to pass a sales tax cut that would help citizens far more than special-interest exemptions have.
But can it be done? And should it be done?
That is something for "thinking leaders" to think about.
Harvey H. (Hardy) Jackson is a history professor and head of the Department of History and Foreign Languages at Jacksonville State University. He is also an editorial and op-ed writer for The Star. He can be reached at hjackson@jsu.edu.
The woes of convicted lobbyist 
(R) Jeff Sessions (1-19)
(D) Vivian Figures (33-1)
(D) Artur Davis (1-49)
(R) Mike Hubbard (13-1)
(?) David Bronner (OFF)