When Governor Kay Ivey called the Alabama Legislature into special session in January of this year, the task was clear: Allocate hundreds of millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to benefit Alabamians through game-changing investments in broadband, health care, and water and sewer infrastructure.

The Legislature responded decisively to Governor Ivey, authorizing $772 million in spending that will aid communities in every corner of the state – putting dollars to work where they are most needed. Generations of Alabama citizens will benefit from the foundations we are laying through this funding.

While the expansion of broadband and the need to shore up our healthcare system – especially with the stresses imposed on it by the COVID pandemic – understandably have received a lot of public attention, the investment in our water and sewer systems has gone under the radar.

That doesn’t mean, however, that repairing, upgrading and expanding our water and sewer services aren’t as critical. In fact, failing and inadequate water and sewer systems can have a direct effect on the health and safety of many of our citizens on a daily basis.

In our legislation, the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate authorized up to $225 million from ARPA for grants to water and sewer systems in the state, to be administered and overseen by the state’s environmental regulatory agency, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). We are happy to report that the investment is already paying dividends for the people of Alabama.

Recently, ADEM reported that it had awarded more than $300 million in grants and loans to public water and sewer systems, with more to come. ADEM has taken the $225 million ARPA money authorized by the Legislature and supplemented it with additional federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan program to pay for more projects than we imagined possible.

The approach ADEM is taking, prioritizing funding to communities with the greatest needs and the least ability to pay – such as Alabama’s Black Belt – means the money is going first where it is needed the most.

You might recall that earlier this month, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the White House came to Lowndes County to promote a new pilot program that offers technical assistance, including help in applying for funding, to resolve sewer issues in 11 disadvantaged communities in several states and native communities. They made available $5 million to pay for that assistance. Two of those areas, Lowndes and Greene counties, are in Alabama.

We are thankful for the technical assistance that Alabama communities’ share of the $5 million will fund.

What was overlooked by some, however, is the fact ADEM already offers technical assistance to public water and sewer systems in Alabama, as well as help in applying for grants and loans. Annually, ADEM provides on average $100 million or more in loans through the State Revolving Loan program to public water and sewer systems.

Unfortunately, many poor, disadvantaged communities can’t get these federally funded loans because they don’t meet all the financial requirements imposed by the EPA.

The game-changers for those communities are the ARPA funding and the legislation the Legislature passed in January making that money available to them despite their financial hardships. Under our legislation and through the work of ADEM, disadvantaged communities can qualify for funding with no local match required, providing them the help they desperately need.

It means more than $15 million for water and sewer projects in Lowndes County and an additional $50 million to the rest of the Black Belt. Keep in mind, these are grants, not loans that have to be repaid.

It also means $5 million for special demonstration sewer projects in the Black Belt to tackle problems specific to areas with dense soil that makes septic systems fail and poverty rates that make more expensive remedies unaffordable.

With the combination of ARPA, BIL and SRF funding, ADEM says it expects to issue nearly $500 million in grants and loans to public water systems this year alone. And that is just the start. More grants and loans will come in following years.

We can say with confidence, help is on the way for communities that have suffered due to inadequate or nonexistent water and sewer service.

We can also say with certainty that your governor and your Legislature will continue to look for ways to improve Alabama’s infrastructure and in doing so improve the lives of Alabama’s citizens.

Mac McCutcheon is Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives. Greg Reed is President Pro Tempore of the Alabama Senate.

The Alabama Legislature’s 2022 regular session ended recently, marking the conclusion of a successful quadrennium that began in 2019. Throughout four regular sessions and numerous special sessions, I am proud to say that my colleagues defended Alabama’s conservative values, fought for hardworking Alabamians in every corner of our great state, and took significant steps to strengthen Alabama’s future and economy.

In this past session alone, lawmakers helped spearhead $160 million worth of annual tax cuts for Alabama families, small businesses, farmers, and retirees.

Thanks to conservative fiscal management by the legislature in recent years, we were able to deliver these much-needed tax cuts to ease the burden on Alabamians without negatively affecting vital government services, such as law enforcement, infrastructure and education.

At the same time, we’ve made historic strides toward expanding affordable, high-speed internet access to all Alabamians, regardless of their zip code. Senate Majority Leader Clay Scofield (R-Guntersville) has been a stalwart leader in this critical effort, and the result has been not only unprecedented investments and public-private partnerships related to broadband expansion, but also innovative, comprehensive planning that will guarantee resources are allocated strategically, efficiently, and as expeditiously as possible.

On that note, innovation has been an overarching theme of this quadrennium for the legislature.

Along with Governor Kay Ivey, her administration, legislative colleagues and private sector stakeholders, we concluded our work with the Alabama Innovation Commission and put legislation in motion that formed the Alabama Innovation Corporation. I am honored to serve as an ex-officio board member as well vice-chair of the Corporation, and I’m thrilled at the progress we have made in a short time at cementing the Yellowhammer State as a burgeoning hub for 21st century entrepreneurship and technology.

From electric vehicles and modern automotive manufacturing to the aerospace and defense industry, biomedicine, cutting-edge scientific research, precision agriculture, and landmark developments at the Port of Mobile, the Alabama Legislature has proactively supported the growth of well-paying jobs and greater opportunity in all 67 of our counties.

My colleagues have also been laser-focused at guaranteeing our workforce is able to meet the demands of a 21st century economy. While we still have work to do, this quadrennium fashioned several pieces of legislation that compensate and treat our teachers like the professionals they are while striving to see all our students reach their full potential.

It’s certainly notable that Alabama Republicans tackled all of this while not compromising on our values, core beliefs or way of life.

We took steps to further secure our elections, including a ban on curbside voting and limiting the influence that private funds have on elections in Alabama, ultimately strengthening the integrity of our elections. Even though we’d put our election system and processes up to anyone else’s nationwide, we can never stop working to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.

Additionally, Alabama Senate Republicans know that the Second Amendment codifies inalienable rights that we will never allow to be infringed. After years of work, my colleagues and I were elated to pass constitutional carry and the Second Amendment Preservation Act, pushing back on President Joe Biden’s radical gun control agenda.

Finally, and most importantly, the Alabama Legislature has been a champion for the most critical right of all – the sacred, God-given right to life. With the Supreme Court of the United States potentially on the cusp of overturning the disastrous Roe v. Wade decision, Alabama Republicans this quadrennium have prepared the people of our state for this very moment.

By passing a constitutional amendment declaring Alabama a pro-life state and passing the most pro-life law in the country, we are ready and willing for the State of Alabama to again have the power to protect the unborn. Nothing is more important than being a voice for the voiceless and protecting the most vulnerable among us.

In Fiscal Year 2022, the legislature made a $772 million investment in communities across the state with will impact Alabamians for generations. Lawmakers appropriated the first round of federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in January to assist with challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is imminent that we will be tasked with allocating a second round of federal dollars, and I am confident that we will again make fiscally sound investments for the future of all Alabamians

I am proud of the work the Alabama Legislature has accomplished these past four years, but I’m also filled with hope for the future of our state knowing that the best is yet to come.

Alabama Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed is a Republican from Jasper.

The need to address Alabama’s longstanding prison infrastructure challenges is imperative.

After many months of education and substantive discussions between the Governor’s Office and the Alabama Legislature, a bipartisan proposal has been put forth to deliver an “Alabama solution” to this very real Alabama problem.

On Monday, the Alabama Legislature will convene in a special session. In addition to reviewing legislation to expand upon previously enacted criminal justice reform packages, we will work to approve legislation which would build two new male prisons and purchase and repurpose the Perry County Correctional Facility as a rehabilitation and re-entry facility. The proposal also lays out a plan to renovate three existing prisons, build a new female prison, and conduct a system wide facilities assessment once construction is complete to evaluate future needs.

The time to act is now.

Why? Public safety is paramount, and it requires proper infrastructure.

Prisons must be designed and well-maintained to safely house the most dangerous among us. “Dilapidated” should never be used to describe these types of vital public safety facilities, which are one of the keys to ensuring law-abiding Alabamians remain safe. Unfortunately, the condition of Alabama’s prison buildings has grown increasingly worse, year-over-year, for many decades. It’s a problem that will not fix itself.

And now we are at a crossroads – we must not continue to kick the proverbial can. Due to our prisons’ deteriorating physical condition, working conditions for our corrections staff are unacceptable and have contributed to staffing shortages. And, as these outdated facilities were never designed to house the people currently incarcerated in Alabama, instances of violence pose a real challenge.

Improving our criminal justice system, and thereby enhancing public safety – which we believe to be of critical importance – must begin with methodically replacing our aging, dilapidated prisons.

A prison sentence not only is a punishment, but also an opportunity to rehabilitate.

Not many realize this, but 95% of the people currently serving a prison sentence will be released back into our communities. They’ll serve their sentence, pay their debt to society, and go home as free citizens. Only a small fraction will remain in prison for life.

When inmates are released from prison, they should come home better prepared to be successful, productive members of society. They should be better educated. They should have a skill or a trade. They should be employable and pay taxes. They should be able to break their cycle of criminal behavior and become, like those of you reading this, law-abiding citizens.

Sending someone to prison – only to have them be released and commit more crime – hurts everyone.

Alabama needs safer, modernized prisons that are designed to accommodate the rehabilitation of returning citizens – a place where inmates can make a conscious choice to take advantage of more opportunities to improve their lives.

This legislation is – without question – the fiscally conservative option.

We don’t use the words “dilapidated” and “deteriorating” lightly. Our prisons are structurally failing – as in, we have shut some of them down because they are deemed too unsafe to operate – at a rate of approximately one every 24 months.

Because the maintenance of our current prisons was neglected for decades, the costs to repair them have skyrocketed. We currently face more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance costs alone, which means the state would need to spend more than one billion dollars – that’s billion with a capital “B” – just to keep our poorly designed prisons operational.

The long-term costs to Alabama’s taxpayers to keep these aging facilities from failing are simply unsustainable and far outweigh the costs of building new, better-designed facilities for a modern era.

If we don’t act, a federal court will. And federal intervention has proven to be costly.

Alabama is currently under federal court scrutiny for the conditions of our prisons. We currently operate under more than 15 different federal court orders, each with multiple and costly mandates.

Consider this: over the past five years, 85 cents of every dollar that the Alabama Department of Corrections’ budget has been increased by is directly tied to a court order. Building new facilities won’t alleviate every concern of the federal courts, but it will go a long way in proving our commitment to addressing several real needs within our criminal justice system.

The Alabama General Fund – the Alabama Budget that takes care of everything in our state other than educational needs – supports various state needs such as mental health, the court system, state troopers, conservation of Alabama’s wildlife and much, much more.

If we fail to act, Alabama potentially may be subject to even more federal court control, thereby handing our corrections system and your tax dollars over to an unelected federal judge who could dictate the way we spend our taxpayers’ money, how we protect our citizens from dangerous criminals, and other types of intervention that could last for years if not decades.

For example, California’s prison system – which did not make the types of improvements we are trying to undertake – was forced to reduce its prison population by more than 40,000 criminals and spend millions upon millions of dollars of avoidable federally mandated costs.

Alabama isn’t California – we’ve never acted like them, and we aren’t about to start now.

Critics of prison construction have claimed that Alabama can’t “build its way out of this problem” or that “money can’t rehabilitate people, only good policy can.” Those are catchy soundbites, but it’s backwards thinking. It’s like building a house from the roof-down – doomed to fail unless a strong foundation is put in place first. That’s what this legislation does – it builds a strong foundation on which we can implement sound policy.

Alabama’s leaders have developed a comprehensive solution to address our decades-old prison infrastructure problem. We’re reaching down and picking up this can once and for all because it’s the right thing to do. This is the first of many important issues we will tackle that are critical to improving our criminal justice system and changing the state’s trajectory for decades to come.

This op-ed was co-authored by: Governor Kay Ivey, Speaker Mac McCutcheon, President Pro-Tempore Greg Reed, House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels & Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton

There is no doubt that we are living in uncertain times, however, there is also no doubt that Alabama, and our nation as a whole, will get through this. And we’ll do it the same way we got through two world wars, September 11, and countless regional disasters – by coming together – and it starts with leadership.

Republicans and Democrats in the Alabama legislature are united in partnering with Governor Kay Ivey, state agencies, and the federal government in order to stop the coronavirus in its tracks. We’re working diligently to mitigate health risks for Alabamians and offering support for our citizens and our businesses to continue growing our economy. (more…)

One of the toughest, yet least-talked about, challenges facing the U.S. today is how to effectively deliver affordable health care to America’s growing population of senior citizens. The U.S. Census Bureau has predicted that by 2035, the number of adults over the age of 65 will exceed the number of children under the age of 18. The graying of America’s population especially creates a challenge for what, at times, can be a fractured and overly complicated health care delivery system.

In Alabama, over 90,000 senior citizens’ health care is funded in part via Medicaid, the federally-mandated insurance program that serves the elderly, the poor, and the disabled. Even though Medicaid is federally-mandated, that definitely does not mean that the federal government covers all of the costs — Alabama’s portion of the costs provided by the general fund was $755 million in Fiscal Year 2019, a figure which eats up 37% of all non-education spending by the State of Alabama. (more…)