Baxley Calls for Raising the Minimum Wage in Alabama
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.