PELL CITY — Gov. Bob Riley urged St. Clair County Republicans Thursday night to work on every level they can to transform Alabama into a true red state.The governor asked the crowd to work in local elections to give Republicans the edge they need to pass conservative legislation in the Legislature.
"We need a coalition to get our bills out of the committee and get them on the floor of the Legislature," Riley said. "We just need seven more in the House and five more in the Senate."
While the state consistently votes Republican in presidential elections, candidates think they can’t win a race running as a Republican in a state campaign, Riley said.
"One day, someone wanting to run for office in Alabama will say, ‘If I want to run and I want to win, I need to run as a Republican,’" Riley said. "When that happens everything flips."
Riley highlighted the recent defeat his budget took in the Legislature as evidence of the difference between Alabama Democrats and Republicans. Riley had proposed an across-the-board tax cut with a $1 billion surplus in the state budget. The Democrat-controlled Legislature passed the budget minus Riley’s tax cut.
"We accepted the entire requested education budget — we paid it all," Riley said. "We grew the education budget from $4 billion to $6 billion in the last three years. There was still a half billion dollars left, and there was a debate in the House over what we should do with that money." Riley said he broke Legislature orthodoxy by entering House chambers uninvited and pushed lawmakers to pass his tax cut.
"After and hour, I made my statement. I couldn’t take it anymore," he said. "I told them if we can’t give a tax cut this year, with a record surplus, explain to me when we can. You can’t make a legitimate case not to give this money back to the taxpayers. We fulfilled all of education’s requests."
Riley said the 5 percent pay increase for teachers was fiscally irresponsible and too large because it will place recurring expenses on state coffers.
"They called it a cost-of-living increase," he said. "They said they can’t afford gasoline; they can’t afford heat; that the cost of living is higher.
"That’s true, but it was because of the people working from 6 in the morning to 8 at night and working two jobs that allowed us to have that surplus. Why can’t we give that back to the people who made possible this debate.
"If you wanted to know the difference between Republicans and Democrats, you saw it last week," he said.
Riley said the surplus was possible because of accomplishments made in economic growth by his administration.
"Three years ago, Alabama had lost 47,000 jobs. We were bleeding jobs," Riley said. "Before this administration, the Alabama Development Office had nine directors in 10 years. We put a staff together, and now we have the lowest unemployment and highest per capita income gain in the South.
"We live by a philosophy of putting talented people to work in Montgomery, not just people who need work or want a job," he said. "I told the president, ‘I’ll put my cabinet against yours any day of the week.’ I came into office looking at a $750 million deficit and now we have a $1 billion surplus."
After his speech, Riley told The Daily Home that to keep the state’s economy going, he plans to focus efforts on expanding the state’s existing industries.
"Seventy percent of our new jobs are in existing industry," he said. "We need to focus on maintaining and keeping our existing industry."
