Griffin Speaks
On Saturday, June 21, 2003 I attended a seminar on the Riley Tax Plan.
I left the seminar convinced that the Riley Tax Plan is a great plan for
Alabama. On September 9, 2003 the Griffins will be voting YES!
At the seminar I learned that Riley inherited the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In the last four years, Alabama's debt doubled. Debt payments are scheduled to balloon to almost $110 million this year. Previous administrations spent one-time sources of revenue without replacing it. The Medicaid budget is facing a $110 million dollar deficit. The prison population has reached a crisis level. The federal courts have intervened and ruled that overcrowding must end. That ruling alone will cost the state $50 million dollars to begin managing the problem. The cost for health insurance for state employees and teachers is out of control. To maintain basic state governmental functions the minimum needed is $700 million dollars.
Governor Bob Riley has stepped up to the plate and proposed a remedy for the crisis that Alabama now faces. I support him 100%. To address the spending problem I learned that Governor Riley has banned pass-through-pork by executive agencies, saving $39 million; he has frozen merit raises for state employees which saves $30 million; he has revised budgets in state agencies and reduced personnel costs by 5%, saving $82 million; he has reduced the cost of state vehicles; recalling and selling almost 600 motor pool vehicles at a saving of $7 million; he has reformed the Medicaid drug program, saving almost $30 million; he has cut his own staff by 30%, his own salary by 5%. He continues to cut wasteful spending in Montgomery but that alone will not balance the budget by October 1 without severe and harmful cuts. We must raise additional revenue that is the bottom line.
Let me explain in the simplest terms what I learned at the seminar. We must repair our financial problems in Alabama once and for all and invest in taking our state forward. This is a synopsis of the Riley Tax Plan:
Accountability Reform: Prevent waste and mismanagement and ensure that our money goes where it is needed and most effective. Education Reform: Make Alabama's education system one of the best in the nation within five years and correct long-standing problems in public education. Tax Reform: Keep taxes low, make taxes fair and ensure that state revenues are stable and reliable so that Alabama never finds itself in this financial crisis again.
I strongly encourage all my readers to contact the Campaign for Alabama at 334-263-6544 or visit the web site at www.campaignforalabama.com to learn more in depth details about the Riley Tax Plan. We are blessed to have a governor that has the courage to do the right thing.Governor Riley's proposed Tax Plan will take Alabama in a new direction. If we support the Riley Tax Plan, it will deliver Alabama to greatness.
Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by logging on to www.greggriffin.com
