Posts by Justin Bogie

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "News & Views" with Joey Clark as they discuss over-budget and behind-schedule prison construction, government red tape and a prime example of government red tape, occupational licensing.

While the 2023 regular legislative session is largely focused on tax relief and education, another issue looms in the background: the state’s correctional system and the various problems hampering its improvement.

State government should only impose regulations when they serve as a legitimate means to ensure the health and safety of Alabamians.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "Midday Mobile" with Sean Sullivan as they discuss the ARPA bill in the Alabama legislature which basically leaves the spending decisions to the governor.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "News & Views" with Joey Clark as they discuss five teacher pay raises in the past four years with no appreciable increase in student scores and the governor wants to raise their pay again.

Without substantial structural reforms, simply increasing teacher pay is unlikely to improve the quality of a public education in Alabama.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "Midday Mobile" with Sean Sullivan as they discuss how tax rebates are just a one-time refund of taxpayer money while tax cuts are an ongoing and continuous refund of taxpayer money, and the only positive long-term outcome of tax rebates is the government won't be able to spend that money.

Judging from Gov. Kay Ivey’s speech last Tuesday, as well as several bills filed by Alabama lawmakers, it looks like some tax relief is in the cards for 2023.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "News & Views" with Joey Clark as they discuss the structural tax reform the Alabama Democrats are proposing in pushing for grocery tax relief.

As lawmakers turn towards a special session allocating remaining ARPA funds, they are claiming that there are no so-called “revenue replacement” funds available for tax cuts. What were almost all the state’s available revenue replacement funds spent on? Prisons.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "Midday Mobile" with Sean Sullivan as they discuss State Superintendent Eric Mackey's request for an additional $1 billion in addition to the 40% increase education has received over the past 4-5 years with no test score improvement over the past 25 years.

Occupational taxes are levied on workers living outside of a city’s tax jurisdiction who come inside city limits to work. Removing them would incentivize citizens to work and give the state a competitive advantage in attracting new businesses.

More funding isn’t producing better results, so why do state leaders continue following the same broken model?

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "News & Views" with Joey Clark as they discuss the Alabama Republican Party's platform of lower taxes, less spending and smaller government, while the state has an uncompetitive corporate tax rate and high sales taxes.

Democrat State Rep. Anthony Daniels should be commended for his willingness to lower taxes and propose legislation providing economic relief to hard-working Alabamians.

When it comes to individual income tax rates, Alabama is currently middle of the road compared to other southern states. That is changing.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "News & Views" with Joey Clark as they discuss the idea of putting the budget surplus in yet another savings account instead of giving Alabamians tax relief.

Another savings account assures the future prosperity of state government.  Don’t Alabamians deserve the same assurance?

Why does Alabama continue to wait? School choice is the right move for Alabama. 

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on "News & Views" with Joey Clark as they discuss the Alabama Legislature's arguments against tax cuts and reasons those arguments are not valid.

State Sen. Arthur Orr laid out a variety of reasons that he opposes Medicaid expansion, calling it "crazy" and making a compelling argument against it.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan as they discuss "wild" revenue streams being used as an excuse to not cut taxes when those streams resulted in a $3 billion surplus last fiscal year and Alabama citizens are struggling under high inflation.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on The Jeff Poor Show as they discuss the "smaller government" Republican supermajority in the Alabama legislature, which spends taxpayer money at a faster rate than Blue states, increasing government by 35% over the past 4 years.

There is enough money available to provide Alabamians with historic tax relief, without jeopardizing future state budgets. The question is, are lawmakers willing to do so?

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on News & Views with Joey Clark as they discuss Medicaid expansion and how the federal government funds drop off dramatically after a couple of years, leaving Alabama on the hook.

Listen to 1819 News Fiscal and Budget Reporter Justin Bogie on Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan as they discuss Medicaid expansion and the adverse effect it would have on Alabama's already poor labor participation rate.

Tax relief should be a top priority for the remaining ARPA funds, but however lawmakers decide to spend the money, they must ensure that it will benefit as many Alabamians as possible.