Huntsville Major Tommy Battle joins Scott Chambers and Andre Tice on Yellowhammer Radio to talk about his recent announcement to run for Alabama Governor in 2018. Mayor Battle lays out his plan to improve the state, which includes a greater emphasis on education, attracting more economic prospects, and repairing the state highways that Scott Chambers commutes on.
The full conversation with Mayor Battle can be heard on the Yellowhammer Radio podcast or in the video above.
Subscribe to the Yellowhammer Radio Podcast on iTunes.
Scott Chambers:
We are joined right now on the Yellowhammer news hotline by the one, the only Mayor Tommy Battle of Huntsville, Alabama. Mayor Battle welcome into Yellowhammer Radio. How are you doing, sir?
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Doing fine, how are y’all doing this morning?
Scott Chambers:
Livin’ the dream.
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Good.
Andrea Tice:
Glad to have you on board. Excited to hear about you throwing your hat into the ring. I think this is the first time a mayor, this is what Scott has told me-
Scott Chambers:
This is true.
Andrea Tice:
That you are the first mayoral candidate to enter the governor’s race.
Scott Chambers:
Not enter the race, but there has never been a mayor in state history to take the office of governor.
Andrea Tice:
Got it.
Scott Chambers:
So how do you feel about your chances, Mayor Battle?
Mayor Tommy Battle:
We’ve never had a mayor elected governor, that’s why we’ve gotten into the problems that we’ve gotten into.’Cause mayors have to solve problems, it’s interesting, we solve problems in the grocery store line. We’re standing there getting groceries, somebody comes up to us and if there’s a problem, we have to take care of them.
And that’s the same way government’s gotta be. It’s gotta be a person to person government, and we’ve been very, very fortunate. In the north Alabama area we’ve had some great successes, and hopefully we can transfer those successes to the state.
Scott Chambers:
That’s a beautiful answer. That’s a great answer. ‘Cause Andrea and I were talking about this off the air. We’ve had no mayor elected as governor, but we need that because you guys, you balance budgets, you work with city councils, you work with the entire state to make your city prosper, and you’ve certainly done that in Huntsville. I first visited Huntsville when I was a kid, and then I guess when I was about 18 years old, I made my first trip solo to Huntsville to visit friends, and I’ve spent many, many weekends in that fine city over the years. And if you go back five years, you go back 10 years, especially 15 years, and you look at the progress in what you have done as mayor of Huntsville, a big pat on the back to you. Because Huntsville is a beautiful city and there’s been so much progress under your leadership.
Mayor Tommy Battle:
We’re real proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. I moved up to Huntsville in 1980 from Birmingham. I grew up in Birmingham down on Rocky Ridge Road many moons ago. Went to Berry High School down there, and 10 to 60 percent of our people are from somewhere else. As we come in, we try to bring good ideas from areas … Some of the not so good ideas, we try to make sure they stay out of our public policy and it’s been a real successful track record that we’ve been able to do in the last 10 years with jobs, and schools, and education … And you know, touching on all the things that really helped our community grow and state grow.
Scott Chambers:
You mention education there, which is a real important thing for the state of Alabama. I know as mayor of Huntsville, you’ve overseen 250 million dollars in new school facilities. If elected governor of Alabama, will you continue that push for better education in the state?
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Oh gosh, education is key. It’s paramount to being able to recruit industry and recruit jobs. Mrs. Battle was a kindergarten teacher for 27 years and now runs a little nonprofit that gives back materials to teachers. And education is the key for any of our success that we can have. We’ve got to make that one of the number one issues that’s out there because we have great education in a bunch of areas, in quite a few areas across the state, but then you have some key areas that we’ve gotta work on, and as we work on those key areas, and we can bring those up, it brings our whole economic prospects up for the state.
Scott Chambers:
Excellent. Well you know, that’s … Another thing that I want to talk about, and sometimes we laugh and joke because I drive. I live in Etowah county, in south side, and I drive to the studio every day to Birmingham. So, I drive roughly 140 miles round trip each and every day. I drive on state highways.
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Yes.
Scott Chambers:
State highways to someone that drives every day, it’s a pain in my rear, sir, and I know that you have overseen a pay as you go solution there in Huntsville for 500 million dollars in road and infrastructure projects. If elected governor of Alabama, will you assure me and all the other drivers out there we’re gonna have a good road system in this state?
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Well, we’ve got to work on the roads. I mean, that’s gonna be key to us. When you start looking at I-65, which is over capacity [inaudible 00:04:13] and everybody knows that little slow down period just because you’re over capacity. And you compare 65 to what Georgia’s done on I-75 going north and south through the state.
Scott Chambers:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Mayor Tommy Battle:
I-75 is six, eight, 10 lanes all the way across.
Scott Chambers:
Right.
Mayor Tommy Battle:
We’re sitting here with the majority of 65 is four lanes. You just cannot compare. You compare the economic development of every interchange in Georgia on I-75 versus economic development on our interchanges on I-65. Those are things that you want to invest in, and it is an investment, it costs money, but you have to invest in that to become a prosperous state, to become a state with good jobs and good paying jobs, and to improve your job standards and your quality of living.
Andrea Tice:
Mayor Battle, I have a question. Scott mentioned the pay as you go program which you instituted or implemented at least in Huntsville
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Sure
Andrea Tice:
Can you explain that more to the person who’s not from Huntsville, who’s … This is a new concept and how that works and how it’s benefited your area?
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Sure. We’re in Washington, D.C. right now and most of your state highway money and federal highway money is a 90/10 mix. 90 percent federal money and 10 percent local money. We stepped up with the state, and we went to the state because it was crucial that we had some roads built that would keep us on roads prosperity, keep us being able to bring in jobs, bring in industry.
So, we committed 25 million dollars a year to put to roads and road building, and that’s the 25 million dollars a year, year in and year out, that we’ve committed from now until through the foreseeable future. And the state matched our 25 million dollars. So they put up their 25 million dollars.
What it did, it helped them take the money that the state gives [inaudible 00:06:03] and really multiply it so that they can get more road projects out of it because we’re paying more than our fair share for it, and they can use it for somebody else’s match if they need to, but for us it was crucial to pay that just so that we could go ahead and get roads and we could get them into [inaudible 00:06:20] on them in the next seven to eight years. And as we’ve done that … And it’s a pay as you go, it’s not a bonded out, it’s not gonna have our kids paying for it for twenty years. We don’t have that generational debt which I almost call generational theft, which you know, we want something now but we don’t want to pay for it so let’s push it off on our kids. To me I think that’s one of the most important conservative values you can have is that you pay for what you get.
Andrea Tice:
All right, then while we’re talking about money, let me just change the topic just a little bit because there’s a story that came out recently about a woman in Birmingham who was able to defraud the Social Security System for probably roughly 10 years. Even after she was convicted of killing her own husband and that’s where she got the benefits from. Then we’ve got another story coming out of Florida, which is just one state over, of millions and millions of dollars being paid out in Medicaid fraud to people who had fraud allegations against them. So, let’s talk about that whole arena here in Alabama, and what would be some of the first steps you would take as governor to address that issue?
Mayor Tommy Battle:
You know, fraud abuse is something that we all need to jump on but it’s very tough to address situations where most of the work that they’re doing and they’re talking about doing is federal programs being administered federally.
Andrea Tice:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Mayor Tommy Battle:
We need to be more [inaudible 00:07:43] out in Washington. I’m in Washington right now and we’re talking to a congressional delegation and our senators and talking about the need for Medicaid. You need to have Block Grants coming down. The state knows how to administer that money much better than the federal government.
Andrea Tice:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Those kind of issues coming back home to us gives us a local control over it so that we can address what’s actually needed but also we can address the wrongs in the system also. As we work through this it’s gonna be very important to us that we continue to go to the federal government and try to get their fingers out of what we do in the state because I really feel like the state and our local officials have a better idea about where we need to go and what we need to do.
Scott Chambers:
So you’re definitely a states’ rights guy there
Mayor Tommy Battle:
(laughs) Definitely a states’ rights guy. I’m a local community guy. It’s kind of interesting, sometimes the state legislature will send things to the cities because they want to kind of control what the cities do and I keep looking at them and say “Man, y’all the guys that don’t want the federal government stepping into your business and then you step into a local situation.”
Andrea Tice:
Yeah.
Mayor Tommy Battle:
So, I think all of us need to stay in our lanes.
Scott Chambers:
Well our guest is Huntsville mayor Tommy Battle who is running for governor of Alabama and in the final few moments here I have one question and then I want to close out and find out who you are. But before we get to that I want to ask, you know the last administration that just left office in Montgomery … The word corruption keeps coming up, time and time again. Alabama politics have been known for corruption. If elected governor of this state, what will you do to cut down on corruption in Montgomery?
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Well, I think it’s more important that we walk the walk rather than talk the talk. We’ve had many, many people talk the talk of, “I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that. Uhh, you know, uhh w-we’re all good Christian fellows who- who are running for office.” But more importantly, we’ve gotta walk that walk. For nine years we’ve been able to walk the walk of a good honest government that responds to the people, a government that addresses issues that are important. And that’s the only way to build confidence in your government. You’ve gotta tell the people “Hey, there’s a plan, there’s a strategy.” And the end result to that plan and strategy is jobs, is a prosperous community. And if you can make them understand that and work with them so that they can have confidence in you, that’s the only way to get confidence back in your government. And we have lost confidence in our government over the last three years with everything that’s gone on.
Andrea Tice:
Yes, that is true. I’m glad you’re identifying the confidence factor that’s been lost, the trust factor.
Scott Chambers:
No question. Well, in our final few moments here tell us: who is Tommy Battle? Tell us about yourself, for those that around the state, that in north Alabama, most everyone knows the name, knows who you are. In south Alabama, there’s a few people that may not know who the mayor of Huntsville is. So, who is Tommy Battle?
Mayor Tommy Battle:
You know, I think the biggest thing to say is that I learned a lot of values from my parents. I learned from my parents, my mom and my dad, the value of hard work. Working in the back halls of Britling’s Cafeterias which was the family business. Working back there you [inaudible 00:11:04] and everything else, you learn the value of hard work.
But also, going through … Growing up in Birmingham, working in Mobile part-time to get through school, coming to Huntsville … We’ve been able to have some achievements, and the great thing about it is, going to Montgomery it won’t have to be on the job training. We already have a strategy, a plan that has been very successful in the north Alabama area … Can we transfer that to Montgomery, and make Montgomery successful also, and can we pull back confidence in Montgomery? Those are some of the key issues that I think everybody should look at when they’re looking for their next gubernatorial candidate.
Scott Chambers:
Absolutely. Mayor Tommy Battle, we appreciate you being on with us here on Yellowhammer Radio today. We look forward to continuing this conversation as the campaign moves forward and look forward to having you here in studio with us some time.
Mayor Tommy Battle:
Great, I’m looking forward to it.
Andrea Tice:
All right, have a great time up there in D.C.
Scott Chambers:
All right, take care, sir. Absolutely.
Mayor Tommy Battle:
All right, thank you.
Scott Chambers:
Huntsville mayor Tommy Battle on Yellowhammer Radio we’ll come back and take your phone calls, go through some of the rest of the news of the day. You can listen to the program of course on 101.1 FM, 95.3 FM in Birmingham, and also 1260 AM as well. Check us out online, yellowhammernews.com, tweet the program @yhnradio. Your phone calls coming up next 866-551-9933. We are live from the call, KS.com heating and air studio.
