Why on Earth is an Alabama PAC acting as a private lender?

  Money has a gravitational effect on politics. A little can tilt campaigns and policy. A lot warps the democratic process like a bowling ball dropped on a bed.

  So campaign finance laws show how much our leaders care about a level playing field. Strong ones reveal the flow of money and restrict the ability of the richest 1% to dominate the conversation. They keep the public in mind.

  And weak ones?  Let’s take a look at last week’s political headlines in Alabama.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - New fiscal year begins, teachers and state employees looking good

  The new state fiscal year begins October 1, and the two state budgets are flush. Both the General Fund and the State Special Education Budgets will be the largest in state history.  

  The General Fund Budget is a record-breaking $2.7 billion. It increases the revenue to mental health and prisons. Medicaid continues to be a money-eating monster. State employees are getting a 4% cost of living raise. This is the third time in recent history that state workers have gotten a back-to-back pay raise. In addition, retired state employees will get a bonus. State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Escambia) and Rep. Steve Clouse (R-Ozark), the budget chairmen, deserve accolades.  

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse – AEA... dead or not?

  The Alabama Education Association (AEA) was the most powerful and influential political organization in Alabama for close to three decades. The late Dr. Paul Hubbert was the builder and king of this powerful organization. He became known as the King of Goat Hill. He reigned omnipotently over the Alabama Legislature.

  All dynasties have to end. The AEA reign began to end with Dr. Hubbert’s retirement. The choice to succeed Dr. Hubbert with Henry Mabry was devastating for the organization. Mabry’s ludicrous and foolhardy stay was the worst nightmare that Hubbert could have imagined.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Gearing up for Alabama politics in 2017

  While the presidential race played out this year, several things happened in Alabama politics that went under the radar.

  First, a federal appeals court upheld the Alabama Legislature’s measure that bans PAC to PAC transfers. The new Republican legislative majority that marched into the Statehouse in 2011 set out to destroy and bury the last bastion of Democratic power in the state – the once omnipotent Alabama Education Association. They succeeded.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The tale of two budgets

  As the legislative session was winding down, it was obvious no solution was going to be found for the beleaguered General Fund Budget. The Governor Bentley's $541 million tax increase proposal had been ignored. Although he still kept preaching that this was the prescription for the ailing General Fund, the good doctor’s prognosis and recommended course of treatment was completely disregarded.

It’s time to hit the panic button on pension reform

  Over the past 10 years, Alabama’s public retirement system has seen its liabilities overtake its assets by more than $15 billion. This means the system has only 66 cents for every dollar owed to current and future retirees.

  Worse still, the shortfall has been growing by $4 million each day that our elected officials fail to tackle three of the biggest contributors to the problem.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The charter schools trap

  In recent years, the Republican Party has taken control of the legislatures in all of the southern states. Alabama’s legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. The GOP holds a 25 to 9 majority in the Alabama Senate and an equally dominating 72 to 33 majority in the Alabama House of Representatives.

  Our supermajority GOP legislative body appeared to take on every conceivable ultraconservative reactionary issue during their first four year reign from 2011 to 2014. However, they forgot one - charter schools.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The legacy of Paul Hubbert

  Paul Ray Hubbert was born on Christmas Day in 1935 in the small rural crossroads of Hubbertville in Fayette County. The community was named for his family, who were the original and primary settlers. He died in October in Montgomery.

  Dr. Hubbert left an indelible mark on Alabama political history. The most enduring political giant in Alabama political history in my lifetime was George Wallace. Next to Wallace would be Senator Richard Shelby and Dr. Paul Hubbert.

Senate Sketches #1429: A Giant lived among us: Dr. Paul R. Hubbert

  A Giant lived among us. He has now transitioned to a fully spiritual state. Even in this spiritual state, he is still a Giant. I am proud that I knew the Giant and called him friend.

  The Giant was born on Christmas Day. Some of us smile as we say that it was no accident that he was born on this day. He inspired great devotion and great antipathies. Those who loved him truly loved him. Those who hated him truly hated him. These powerful loves and hates bring to mind another spiritual being born on this same day.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1423: Thinking about AEA in a historical way

  “Have you seen Dr. Hubbert’s letter?” That’s how a friend informed me of a developing controversy involving AEA (Alabama Education Association). I had not seen the letter, but I hastened to read the news article forwarded to me by e-mail. I was deeply concerned about AEA, and it spurred me to think about AEA in a historical way.

Cameron Smith: The Accountability Act gets personal

  Since its enactment in 2013, the Alabama Accountability Act has been a focal point in Alabama politics. The law added flexibility from certain state education requirements for traditional public schools, provided tax credits for parents looking to transfer their children out of failing schools, and created a tax credit scholarship program.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The rise of ALFA

  When I went to the legislature in 1982 as a 30-year-old freshman, there were two powerful organizations. The Alabama Farmers Federation (ALFA) and the Alabama Education Association (AEA) were omnipotent. The Farmers Federation had prevailed as the King of Goat Hill for decades and probably going back to when Alabama became a state in 1901.

  You chose early which side you were on, either ALFA or AEA. It was almost like football in our state where you have to side either with Auburn or Alabama. My choice was easy. Being from a rural county and being a business person, I made my allegiance to ALFA.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Political polarization

  Believe it or not we are approaching the fourth year of this legislative quadrennium. The legislature will meet early next year because it is an election year. All 140 seats in the House and Senate are up for election in 2014.

  These legislators were elected in 2010. Most of them are Republicans. The GOP owns a two to one super majority in both the House and Senate. These folks are not just Republicans in name only, sometimes referred to as "RINOs." They are real Republicans.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Show us the money

  As the world turns in Alabama politics, the 2013 legislative session is in the stretch run. The waning days will see the final passage of the 2014 budgets, which will begin in October.

  The most controversial and pivotal issue of the session is the infamous Accountability Act. It has sent the legislative session into an acrimonious partisan stalemate. To review the scenario, Republicans came forward with a controversial eight-page Education Flexibility Bill, which gave local school boards the option to opt out of strict state educational requirements. However, when the bill went to a conference committee, it grew into a 28-page bill that was completely different. It became a full-fledged voucher bill which allows a $3,500 tax credit to parents who choose to send their children to private schools.

Cameron Smith: The AEA is only one perspective in Alabama education

  After years of the status quo in public education, the Alabama Legislature and Governor Bentley enacted the Alabama Accountability Act to create alternative public education options for students trapped in Alabama’s worst schools. But over the past several weeks, the Alabama Education Association (AEA) has waged an all-out war against the Accountability Act through telephone robocalls, radio ads and newspapers.

Cameron Smith: Amendment 4: Choosing right over racism

  Over the last few weeks, the Alabama Education Association (AEA) and a number of Democrat lawmakers have led the charge to preserve racist language in Alabama’s Constitution by opposing Amendment 4 on the November 6 ballot.

  Amendment 4 deletes language in Section 256 of Alabama’s Constitution relating to “elective” segregated schools and repeals poll tax provisions. In short, Section 256 of the Constitution of 1901 which required the Legislature to “establish, organize, and maintain a liberal system of public schools” was clearly unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education because it also contained a provision requiring segregated schools. As a result, Alabama voters removed the offending language in 1956 with Amendment 111 and simultaneously eliminated the right to a public education in Alabama.