Bentley shock memo predicts parts of govt. will 'cease to exist' if taxes aren't raised

Gov. Bentley signing bills in his office (Photo: Office of the Governor)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Yellowhammer has obtained a memo Gov. Bentley sent to state lawmakers Tuesday afternoon detailing what the administration believes will happen if the legislature chooses to make cuts, rather than raise taxes.

The memo is as death and doom as it gets, predicting the EPA will take over the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), 13 Trooper posts will be closed, and 33 of the state’s 78 stand-alone Drivers License posts will be shuttered.

The court system’s operations would “cease to exist in [their] current form,” and thousands of prisoners would have to be relocated into even smaller facilities.

Perhaps the most stark numbers are the hundreds of millions of dollars in matching funds from the federal government that would be forgone if the state does not come up with its part in Medicaid and the Department of Human Resources.

The governor’s office has insisted their recent public statements are sincere attempts to educate the public and legislators about the potential impacts of budget cuts, but others have accused the administration of fear mongering.

The administration recently instructed case workers to tell elderly Medicaid Waiver Program participants their services are in imminent danger of being cut. Sen. Harri Anne Smith (I-Slocomb) called it “the lowest thing I’ve seen in all the years I’ve served.”

On Yellowhammer Radio recently, host Cliff Sims called the administration’s threats to close state parks “bogus.”

“It’s a political scare tactic, and I’m telling you, I believe they ought to be ashamed of themselves,” he said.

Conservative talk show host Matt Murphy on Wednesday compared the latest memo to the dire predictions the Obama administration made leading up to the 2013 federal government shutdown.

“Robert Bentley has become Barack Obama,” Murphy intoned.

Legislators insist the dire predictions are premature, as they are still in the fact-finding phase of the budgeting process.

General Fund budget chairmen Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) and Rep. Steve Clouse (R-Ozark) have asked agencies to show them what potential cuts would look like.

“Legislators need to know the possible impact if we had just a budget based on cuts and the governor is in a better position to define what the cuts might mean as far as agencies being able to perform their missions,” Sen. Orr said, adding that the House General Fund committee will consider the budget beginning next week.

The Governor has spent much of the last month touring the state asking businesses to support his plan for higher taxes, but this week’s memo is perhaps the first time many in the public have seen all the proposed cuts in one place.

The memo can be read in full below, but it is important to remember that this it outlines what cuts could look like if there is no priority given to some agencies and programs over others; it is simply a reflection of across-the-board cuts.

Click here to read Governor Bentley’s memo.