Rep. Ford: With the recent shootings in Connecticut, I think we need to make our schools safer. We’ve had a fiscal note come out that would provide some type of security at every school, and House Minority that is something in Leader Representative today’s time that is Craig Ford needed. That’s going to be really high on the priority list of both parties. We have a piece of legislation coming (dealing) with that. (Editor’s note: Rep. Ford was interviewed the week after the Dec. 14 school shootings in Connecticut.) Other priorities will be: Paying back the constitutional amendment [authorizing expenditures from the State Oil and Gas Trust Fund] within a 5-year period; a pay raise for educators, state employees and retirees; a lottery; and $1 tobacco tax increase to help fund Medicaid. All are of equal importance in different areas and with different budgets. We need an increase in revenue without raising taxes. That’s where we will look at a lottery and a tobacco tax. Those are what are called “volunteer” taxes. We need to be innovative and creative in how we come up with revenue for tax increases without raising taxes on everyone. Figures: The biggest challenges I see coming before the legislature in 2013 are: • Funding the General Fund Budget which includes MedicSenate Minority aid, the Depart- Leader Senator ment of Mental Vivian Figures Health and Corrections; • The question of expanding Medicaid; • Consolidation of the Education Trust Fund Budget and the General Fund Budget. I feel that this would be a big mistake because education dollars will be taken to fund the General Fund Budget. As it stands now, public education in Alabama is not adequately funded. To take any of the funds away from the ETF would be detrimental to public education in Alabama. The biggest opportunities I see are: Alabama Living
• Expanding Medicaid so that the state of Alabama can receive billions of dollars, which will in itself be a great economic boost for us; • Dealing with tax reform for fair taxation and sustainable revenue. AL: Do you see any policies coming up affecting energy policy? Hubbard: We’re always very conscious of energy because it’s so important to our state in terms of business, in terms of national security, and in terms of economic development. And unfortunately we’re having to fight our federal government in some cases. We’re really the last line of defense against an over-reaching federal government in many instances. We have to deal with EPA regulations but we have a legislative committee, a joint committee that has been working since 2007, meeting regularly to make sure that we’re on the leading edge of what we need to be doing from an energy perspective. That is the key component. We’re in the economic development business, the job creation business. Making energy affordable and plentiful is very important to us. Marsh: A lot of problems for the energy industry are at the federal level. I think the EPA has put in a lot of regulations that have been harmful to the coal industry which affects the power industry in many cases. With those things, we can only do so much. On a state level, if there is anything about these regulations we can address we will continue to address that. We do all we can with ADEM to make sure regulations are reasonable for industry. Your industry obviously has to be concerned with employment and job growth. Your industry is a supplier of the commodity of energy. Obviously anything we can do to improve the job situation and economic growth will benefit your organizations across the state. I can assure you the efficiencies and reform measures will result in a leaner government, and if government is running efficiently, it’s less of a burden on taxpayers. The other issue that is equally important to us is job growth and economic development. If we can focus in this next session on these issues, all organizations including the electric co-ops, will benefit from this next session. Ford: We need to continue to help support incentives for coal companies, for alternative energy producers, and for natu-
ral gas to expand and hire new employees. We need to continue to support the Clean Coal Act and also hydraulic and nuclear power plants. Figures: I would like to see Alabama establish policy for energy conservation and a formal recycling program for all of Alabama. I am currently working on legislation dealing with both of these issues. State government alone could save a lot of money with an energy conservation plan that is enforced. AL: There has been discussion about the RSA needing another large appropriation in order to keep the state retirement financially stable. With the current program, economic outlook and pressures on the budgets, do you see problems meeting this request? Hubbard: We’re always going to make sure that our retirement system is fiscally sound and solvent because we have a responsibility to the people already in the system and people who are yet to be hired to make sure that the retirement system is there. Now, during the last legislative session we made some pretty significant changes for new hires, where employees will have to pay more toward their health insurance. Now that’s not something we boast about, but it was the right thing to do because otherwise the can had been kicked down the road for years and years and we just had to make some changes. It’s going to save about $5 billion over 20-25 years. We’re working very closely with the RSA and we always have to make sure that the investment that the RSA are making is sound. I believe that they are. They’ve suffered just like everybody else with the downturn of the economy, but my hope is that when the economy does turn around, and we can kind of see it turning that way, that the requirement of the appropriations from the ETF and the General Fund will be less. That’s my hope. Marsh: I haven’t heard exactly but somewhere around $100 million is predicted to be a shortfall (in the retirement system). At the same time you’ve got the head of the AEA union saying they want a 10 percent increase in pay. There’s only so much money there to do something with. One of our primary responsibilities is to make sure those retirement systems are sound and the insurance is sound. That’s where I’m going first before I look at a pay raise. I hate that we’ve not been february 2013 13