Sometimes it takes a great college newspaper to say it best…

Assorted Logic
By Jordan Pittman

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Sept. 20, 2006 – A few weeks ago I wrote about the extremely dim-witted attack ad Gov. Bob Riley began airing in the middle of August. Riley was trying to convince Alabamians that Democratic gubernatorial nominee and current Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley is “too liberal for Alabama.”

The ad didn’t spell out any specific reasons or stances, but it definitely tried to paint Baxley as being out of touch with Alabama voters. For Riley to accuse anyone else of being out of touch with the people of Alabama is laughable.

Consider his first major action as governor. He tried to pass one of the largest tax increases in the history of Alabama through Amendment One, which went before voters in September 2002. Two-thirds of Alabama voters voted against the $1.3 billion tax increase.

If a huge majority of people voted against a measure Riley proposed, wouldn’t that make him out of touch with the voters?
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 14 – Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor, went on the road with an anti-tax truck Thursday to point out that flip flopping on taxes is all the proof Alabama voters need to know “you can’t trust Bob Riley,” she said at a press conference at the Birmingham Public library.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, at the first Blue Dot Ball in Homewood, says “you can’t trust Bob Riley.”

Ms. Baxley and Jefferson County Assessor Dan Weinrib both expressed their strong opposition to Governor Bob Riley’s property tax increase because of its negative effect on Alabama’s working families.

“As a candidate in 2002 Bob Riley said he would not raise our taxes, but then as soon as he got elected Riley proposed the largest tax increase in Alabama history,” Ms. Baxley said. “When the people said, ‘No,’ Riley had his Revenue Commissioner order annual property reappraisals, and with the stroke of a pen and without a vote of the people Riley raised our property taxes.”

She pledged that her first official act as governor will be to revoke Bob Riley’s property tax increase he ordered of every revenue official in all of Alabama’s 67 counties when he made the ad hoc decision to reappraise property taxes every year instead of at least once every four years, as the law calls for.

“Alabama families already pay enough taxes,” she said, including new home owners in Alabama’s burgeoning suburbs, where many African-American families are already stretched to the breaking point economically.

Robbie Yarbrough, chairman of the Jefferson County Democrats, joined Baxley and read the statement from Weinrib.

“Never in my wildest imagination did I ever believe that this governor would help impose the biggest property tax increases imaginable and do so without the consent of our people,” Weinrib said.

Jefferson County begins collecting taxes from property owners Monday October 2 based on the third year of annual revaluation.

“Every tax season I hear heart-wrenching stories from constituents, whose pocketbooks are already stretched thin as it is,” Weinrib said. “Often they are elderly folks on fixed incomes or middle class families struggling to keep up each year with increasing house payments.”

Riley has said that it would take an act of the legislature to overturn annual property reappraisals, but the last four Alabama Governors operated under the same laws as Riley and none of them ordered annual reappraisals, Baxley said, including Gov. Fob James.

“Governor Riley could reverse the property tax increase any time he wanted to by executive order, but instead he is trying to mislead us,” Baxley said. “It just goes to show you, folks, that you just can’t trust Bob Riley.”

Lt. Gov. and Democratic Party nominee for governor Lucy Baxley will hold a press conference at the Birmingham Public Library Thursday, Sept 14, from 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 2100 Park Place, along with Deputy Jefferson County Tax Assessor Grover Dunn.

Dunn will read a statement from Jefferson County Assessor Dan Weinrib which in part reads, “Never in my wildest imagination did I ever believe that this governor would help impose the biggest property tax increases imaginable and do so without the consent of our people.”
 
Earlier in the day Baxley will speak from noon to 12:45 p.m. at a WWII Veterans reunion where she will be honored by the gift of one of the only two remaining pieces of the USS Birmingham.
 
Following the 3 p.m. press conference the campaign will unveil the “Tax Truck.”

The truck reads, “Thanks Bob Riley for our Tax Increase!” and includes a headline from the Decatur Daily, “Get ready for tax man.”

The Tax-Truck will crisscross the city of Birmingham for the next week, after which the Tax-Truck will head out for a state-wide tour. The Tax-Truck will remind the people of Alabama that Governor Riley raised their taxes with the stroke of a pen when he ordered annual property reappraisals. The truck will be parked just outside the Birmingham Library following the press conference.

Rally at West Birmingham Car Wash on Riley’s Connections to Gambling Money, PAC-to-PAC Transfers
 
Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor, will hold a rally at Dundee’s Car Wash and Detail at 1700 3rd Ave. West in Birmingham from 11:30 am to noon on Wednesday, September 6.

Baxley will ask Governor Riley to “come clean” about his connections to Mississippi gambling money and outline her proposal to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers, according to a press release.

Baxley will also hand out copies of former Riley aide Michael Scanlon’s company ledger showing he earmarked $75,000 for Riley under the heading “Operation Orange,”  the nickname he gave to transactions intended to limit gambling competition on behalf of the Mississippi Choctaw Indians.

Testimony included in a report issued by Senator John McCain’s Indian Affairs committee shows that the total amount of money in question could be as much as $13 million.

Lt. Gov. and the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor Lucy Baxley will hit the campaign trail around Alabama on Labor Day beginning with a parade in Tuscumbia, where she will ride in a 2007 Ford Mustang convertible in the Labor Day Parade beginning at 9 a.m. and speak to the crowd at Spring Park at 10.

Ms. Baxley will then make an appearance at the Jefferson County Labor Council/AFL-CIO’s “Family Fun Day” at the Sloss Furnace historical site in Birmingham between between noon and 4 p.m.

Introduces Workers Impacted by Raising the Minimum Wage
 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 30 – Democracitc Party nominee for governor Lucy Baxley held a rally in Birmingham today and vowed to lead the charge to help the tens of thousands of Alabamians who would benefit from a $1 an hour increase in the minimum wage.
 
“Working people deserve to earn a moral wage,” Baxley said .  “Governor Riley said he doesn’t know anyone still paying the minimum wage.  Well, here are some hard working people who need that $1 raise, and I’m going to make sure they get it.”
 
Baxley was joined shortly after the event by a number of workers who would feel the impact of an increase in the minimum wage, a group that Governor Bob Riley has apparently never met.

An August 6th story in the Cullman Times quoted Riley as saying, “I don’t know of anyone who is still paying minimum wage, even in the rural areas.”
 
“I will lead the charge to increase Alabama’s minimum wage because people who put in an honest day’s work should earn enough to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads,” Baxley said  “It is morally unacceptable that anyone working 40 hours a week still earns $5,000 less than the federal poverty line for a family of four.

“Study after study shows that raising the minimum wage helps low-income working families without negatively impacting employment, and we as leaders have a duty to fight for this increase,” she said.
 
Baxley has proposed raising Alabama’s minimum wage by $1 above the federal minimum to $6.15 by 2007.

Since 1997, 18 states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimum wage above the federal level, with seven more considering the issue on the ballot in November, and eight state legislatures considering the issue during 2006 sessions.  Only six states, including Alabama, have no state minimum wage law on the books.
 
In 2004, 562 economists, including four Nobel Laureates, signed a letter agreeing that “modest increases in state minimum wages in the range of $1 to $2 can significantly improve the lives of low-income workers and their families, without the adverse effects that critics have claimed.”

The 1999 Economic Report of the President expressed that “the weight of the evidence suggests that modest increases in the minimum wage have had very little or no effect on employment.”
 
Thirty-five percent of workers who receive a minimum wage are their families’ sole earners. Sixty-one percent are women, and almost one-third of those women are raising children.  More than 80 percent of minimum wage earners are over the age of 20, with half between the ages of 25 and 54 years-old.
 
Letter from 562 Economists (pdf)

Economic Report of the President

On Wednesday, August 30, Lt Gov. and Democratic Party nominee for governor Lucy Baxley will hold a rally in Birmingham at the CWA Local 3902 Union Hall, 210 Summit Parkway, from 9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.

She will introduce workers who will benefit from a $1.00 raise in the minimum wage, a proposal Gov. Riley scoffed at recently in an article for the Cullman Times, when he said, “I don’t know of anyone who is still paying minimum wage.”

Proposes Initiative to Get Every Alabamian Online

by Glynn Wilson
Editor and Publisher

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley

If you follow this Web site regularly, you may remember a few weeks ago when we called on Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley to advocate raising the state minimum wage in Alabama and to consider a new technology initiative.

While some have suggested the 68-year-old Ms. Baxley had no new ideas when she ran a moderate primary race against former Gov. Siegelman that was short on issues, we suggested that she might very well listen to some good ideas.

Today at press conferences in Montgomery, Birmingham and Huntsville, Ms. Baxley, the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor, proved she can listen and champion good ideas. She called for raising the minimum wage in Alabama by at least $1 an hour and proposed an initiative to get every Alabamian online.

Ms. Baxley said workers making the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour have to spend one day’s pay to buy a tank of gas.

“It’s the only fair thing to do,” Baxley said. “People who put in an honest day’s work should earn enough to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. It is morally unacceptable that anyone working 40 hours a week still earns $5,000 less than the federal poverty line for a family of four.”

She indicated she will propose a bill to raise the state minimum wage one dollar an hour by 2007.

While the federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, 18 states and the District of Columbia have a higher minimum, with the highest being $7.63 an hour in Washington state, according to the Associated Press.

Baxley said her first official act as governor would be to order the property tax reappraisals to be every four years. That’s the way property was reappraised in Alabama until Riley’s revenue department changed the system to once a year, which Baxley said caused many Alabama residents to pay higher taxes.

And she proposed the development of a public-private partnership in the spirit of Alabama’s Rural Electric Administration to bring the internet into every Alabama home.

According to a U.S. Census Bureau study, Alabama ranks 48th in percentage of households with a computer, and 46th in percentage of households with Internet access.  Working with the federal government and top technology corporations like AOL, Dell, Apple, Microsoft, and local internet providers, Get Alabama Online would open the door to an electronic global economy and community with low-cost packages including a computer, printer, desktop software and internet access, she said.

Ms. Baxley will face the incument Republican Gov. Bob Riley in the Nov. 7 general election.

At the press conferences and in a press release, Ms. Baxley listed her top nine priorities:
 
1. Overturn annual property tax appraisals by revoking the executive order signed by Governor Bob Riley.

2. Raise the minimum wage in Alabama as has been done in 44 other states.

3. Create a Cabinet-level office of Inspector General to root out waste in state government.

4. Get all of Alabama on-line by developing a public-private consortium with technology companies.

5. Ban PAC-to-PAC transfers. Period.

6. Fight illegal immigration by increasing penalties for employers who repeatedly hire illegal immigrants and prohibit employers who hire illegal aliens from receiving economic development incentives.

7. Develop a small business insurance pool to ensure that employers can provide affordable health insurance to their employees.

8. Return discipline to the classroom by giving teachers the tools they need and encouraging greater parental involvement.

9. Investigate price gouging at the gas pump and promote the local production of ethanol and biodiesel by providing tax incentives and credits to Alabama growers, producers and distributors of bio-fuels.

AP: Baxley Calls for Raising the Minimum Wage in Alabama