By Slade Blackwell
The vast majority of Americans continue to grow increasingly concerned and disappointed about the direction our country is headed. The national economy is sluggish, at best, and out-of-control federal spending has seemingly passed the point of no return.
Fortunately for Alabamians, though, we have a different story to tell.
Over the past four years, Alabama Republicans have enacted fiscally responsible, common sense reforms that have helped lower unemployment, significantly reduce government spending, and restore accountability to state government.
Our top priority has been improving the private sector economy and putting Alabamians back to work. Since 2010, Alabama has added thousands upon thousands of new jobs and our unemployment rate is at its lowest point since October 2008.
Putting the state on firm financial footing has been an equally important priority. The past four years have been the most significant in decades when it comes to reducing the size and cost of state government.
Since 2010, Republicans have cut wasteful spending and implemented spending reforms that will save Alabama taxpayers more than $1 billion per year. We have reduced the state’s bureaucracy at the third fastest pace of any other state in the nation.
While asking other state agencies to become more efficient and do more with less, the Legislature is committed to leading by example. That’s why in this year’s budget, we reduced spending in legislative agencies by nearly $2 million from the previous budget year.
Newly implemented conservative budgeting practices, like the Rolling Reserve Budget Act passed in 2011, have enabled us to repay $260 million toward $437 million borrowed under the previous majority. While paying down these debts, we have also taken great care to craft education budgets that would not be subjected to devastating midyear cuts, also known as proration. This follows four consecutive years of prorated budgets written by the previous majority.
We also gave our hardworking teachers the first pay raise since 2007.
Cutting wasteful government spending, maximizing taxpayer resources and paying down our debts have been a priority for the Legislature and Gov. Robert Bentley over the past four years and will continue to be a priority for the next term.
While we have seen significant progress, there is still more work to be done.
Slade Blackwell is serving his first term in the Alabama State Senate representing Jefferson and Shelby counties in District 15. For more information about Slade, visit www.sladeblackwell.com or follow him on Facebook or on Twitter @sladeblackwell. To reach him by phone, call 334-242-7851.
