(Audio above: Chief Justice Roy Moore on Yellowhammer Radio reveals his opposition to Gov. Bentley’s tax increase proposals)
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore made waves by announcing his opposition to Gov. Robert Bentley’s $541 million tax increase proposal during a guest interview on Yellowhammer Radio with Cliff Sims on Tuesday.
“I can’t agree with tax hikes,” Moore said bluntly. “We need to look at where we’re spending money.”
In particular, Moore pointed out the significant increase in spending on pre-kindergarten during Gov. Bentley’s time in office. Alabama’s pre-k program is ranked top in the nation and has been a major education focus for the administration. Most recently, the governor announced a $17.5 million grant to further expand the program, in which only 12 percent of the state’s four-year-olds currently participate.
“Over the years we’ve increased spending in pre-k by millions of dollars,” said Moore. “We’ve taken that function away from churches and away from private individuals and put it in the state. We continue to do that.”
“We also continue to have two budgets,” he added. “We don’t need two budgets. Everybody in state government knows that, we just don’t do anything about it.”
Sims echoed Moore’s sentiments about the unique structural concerns with Alabama’s budgets, particularly that the state earmarks funds at an unprecedented level, leaving very little flexibility in the appropriations process.
“[W]ith 88 percent of Alabama’s money being earmarked, we need to un-earmark some of this money and ultimately combine the budgets to give [the Legislature] more flexibility [so] they can move some of that money around,” said Sims. “It seems so common sense, what am I missing? Why are folks in Montgomery not taking that approach?”
More said the answer to that question is simple: politics.
“I think they miss it because they’re tied up with political favors and political contributions and they’re afraid to upset the system,” he said. “They give more into politics and less into reason… If you ask any legislator, nearly every one will tell you we don’t need two budgets and earmarking has killed us, but they won’t do anything about it, because it’s politics.”
Moore also expressed concerns with the significant cuts that have been made in recent years to the judicial branch of Alabama’s state government. Hundreds of employees have been cut over the last decade. Between 2011 and 2014, the State Judicial System had its budget slashed from $120 million to $89 million, a 26 percent cut.
“When I was last chief justice from 2000-2003, since that time we’ve lost 305 personnel,” he explained. “The personnel that we’ve lost are people that work in the clerk’s offices, the probation officers, the people that really handle a lot of the business for the state. We collect a lot of money for the executive branch and for the General Fund that we don’t get, and if we’re cut, that’s going to be hurt as well. It just doesn’t help the people in the communities out in the state of Alabama to have their jury trials further delayed, maybe even cancelled because we can’t have enough people to operate the system… We’re holding our own right now, but if we’re cut further, we can’t do what we’re doing right now. If we have to lay off other personnel, we’re going to suffer tremendously.”
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
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