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Elected officials meeting sparks new ideas
By Chasity Brown
The Weekly Post
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Published January 28, 2010
State Sen. Lowell Barron (D-Fyffe) hosted an elected officials meeting in DeKalb County on Jan. 22, as a way to update local leaders about activities in the legislature and to listen to their concerns about their communities.
"The biggest problem we face is employment without a doubt," Barron said.
To illustrate his point, Barron announced that DeKalb County now has an unemployment rate of 13.4 percent, and Jackson County's rate is 11.7 percent. Barron said those numbers translate to an actual 6,580 people without jobs in both counties. The number of underemployed, meaning adults working part-time or two jobs, is equal to the number of unemployed, Barron said.
Barron said he is optimistic about the future despite how bleak the unemployment numbers are now.
"I have the greatest faith in the American people that things will get better,"Barron said.
Barron spoke about current and upcoming bills in the legislature, including his billion dollar "road and bridge bill" that he said would create 29,000 job over a ten for a ten-year period and improve the condition of thousands of roads and bridges throughout the state.
Barron said he plans to propose an accountability bill that would stop the state government's ability to have "no bid" contracts. He said this would save the state money, make government more transparent and protect jobs in Alabama.
Barron said balancing the state's budget will be tough this year.
"When we leave Montgomery, we will have a balanced budget this year," Barron said. "It will be tough, especially in the education budget. There will probably have to be some cuts this year."
Barron said all of the budget categories will need to be cut.
To illustrate the point that cuts will be necessary across the board, Barron said if the legislature level funded the budgets for prisons and Medicaid, they would have to cut every other state agency at least 50 percent.
"If there is no stimulus or outside money, it will be bad," Barron said.
Barron said he plans to have a series of elected official meetings, and he also plans to have an industry roundtable to discuss ways to bring in jobs.
Barron pledged to keep Alabamians' taxes low.
Barron received questions about a number of topics, including charter schools, which Gov. Bob Riley has endorsed.
"The governor is pushing charter schools," Barron said. "We are not going to fund charter schools until we can fund the ones we have."
Commission Chairman Sid Holcomb said the public needs to be encouraged to join DeKalb County's Code Red program, which alerts members to weather alerts by telephone.
Barron was also asked about the possibility of all TVA in-lieu-of-tax money being given to North Alabama at some point. Barron said only 85 percent of the money goes to North Alabama at this time, but a bill has passed the state senate to bring all that money back to North Alabama. The bill just needs to pass the state senate now. He said he expects the governor to veto the bill but believes the senate can override him.
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