Ending the state sales tax on groceries will remain a top item on Alabama Arise’s 2027 legislative agenda. The organization also will support a $15-an-hour minimum wage and legislation to empower counties to protect residents from potential harms of data center projects.
Nearly 500 members voted last week on Arise’s legislative priorities. The seven priorities chosen were:
- Health equity, including closing Alabama’s health coverage gap for adults with low incomes and protecting access to maternity care.
- Hunger relief, including protecting funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and ensuring every public school can provide no-cost breakfast for all students.
- Inclusive democracy, including no-excuse early voting and removal of barriers to voting rights restoration for disenfranchised Alabamians, as well as legislation to ensure counties can require appropriate public health and safety protections for data center projects.
- Adequate state budgets, including equitable public education funding for every student and state funding for public transportation and affordable housing.
- Justice reform, including legislation to apply Alabama’s ban on judicial override of jury sentencing decisions in death penalty cases retroactively, as well as improvements to the state’s sentencing and parole systems.
- Tax reform to build a more just and sustainable revenue system, including eliminating Alabama’s state sales tax on groceries and replacing the revenue equitably.
- Worker power to advance the health and safety of Alabama families, including increasing the state’s minimum wage and extending paid parental leave protections to more workers.
“Alabama Arise heard from hundreds of people across our state about the issues that matter most, and this agenda reflects those concerns,” Alabama Arise Executive Director Robyn Hyden said. “From not having enough money to afford basic needs to demanding the power to shape decisions that impact their communities, Alabamians are asking policymakers to take up real solutions to everyday problems.”
Many of the priorities chosen by the advocacy organization reflect its objectives from past years, but a new priority is expanding “home rule” for Alabama counties to better address data center regulations.
Many Alabamians have expressed concerns about data centers’ potential effects on the economy, environment and utility costs in their communities. Several cities, including Athens, Birmingham and Hoover, have passed local ordinances to help regulate these possible impacts. Other cities, including Cullman and Homewood, have approved one-year moratoriums to allow more time to evaluate how to proceed.
But Alabama counties lack many of the home rule powers that state law grants to cities. That means county officials are less equipped to establish safeguards for data centers in unincorporated areas. Arise will support statewide legislation to help empower counties to respond effectively to community concerns related to data center projects. The organization also will work to promote meaningful public engagement in the assessment and regulation of these projects.
The group also will continue to pursue the complete elimination of the state sales tax on groceries, an effort that has already seen some success. Alabama lawmakers voted to reduce the 4 percent sales tax to 2 percent, and Arise is now seeking to eliminate the remaining tax.
“Reducing the state grocery tax was an important step toward repairing Alabama’s upside-down tax system,” Hyden said. “By ending the state grocery tax and limiting the federal income tax deduction, legislators can help families keep food on the table while protecting funding for public schools. Our lawmakers should act quickly to end the state grocery tax forever in 2027.”
Arise members expressed overwhelming support for legislation to increase Alabama’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Alabama follows the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 an hour since Congress last increased it in 2009. That means the minimum wage has stayed the same for nearly two decades even as costs for food, health care, housing and other necessities have continued to climb.
