Auburn alumna Kay Ivey has been sworn in for her first full term as the 54th governor of the state of Alabama.
Ivey and other state constitutional officers, including Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who is also an Auburn graduate, took the oath of office Monday on the steps of the Alabama Capitol.
Their swearing-in followed a day of celebrations including a parade through downtown Montgomery.
Ivey is the first woman Republican duly elected to the post and only the second woman to ever hold the position.
Gov. Lurleen Wallace, to whom Ivey alluded in her inaugural speech on Monday, held the position as a Democrat briefly from 1967 until she died of cancer in 1968. Ivey had an empty chair placed on the platform in Wallace’s memory.
“In her Inaugural address, Governor Wallace called on the Alabama Legislature to, among other things, provide greater funding to build and improve our roads,” Ivey said, and she did the same on Monday, throwing her weight as a highly popular governor behind a Republican-led plan to increase the gas tax to fund infrastructure investments.
“Improving our infrastructure is more than an investment in our roads and bridges,” Ivey said. “It’s an investment in economic development, public safety and local communities.”
Though Ivey didn’t say the word “tax” in her inaugural address, she referenced the fact that the funding mechanism hasn’t been updated in nearly three decades.
Alabama hasn’t increased its gasoline tax since 1992, when it added a nickel. Alabama now has the lowest gasoline tax in the Southeast and will soon be surpassed by South Carolina, which recently raised its motor fuels tax, in terms of revenue, to become the state with the lowest revenues from a gas tax, too.
Funds collected from a gasoline tax are used solely for infrastructure development.
Ivey has been in lockstep with Republican leadership in the Alabama Legislature, where the GOP has a supermajority in both chambers. Ivey, Speaker Mac McCutcheon and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh have called for a “modest” increase.
Despite their supermajority, the Republican leadership may have problems within their own caucus.
Divisions between more moderate Republicans, the party’s leadership and more anti-tax conservative Republicans killed efforts in recent years to raise the tax.
Ivey signaled she may need help from Democrats to pass the plan, which she has said is one of her top priorities going into the 2019 legislative session that begins in March.
“The challenges we confront today did not just arrive on our doorstep,” Ivey said. “Likewise, they will not go away in weeks or even months. But if we work on them together — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals — then today’s challenges can be looked upon as tomorrow’s accomplishments.”
Ivey also used her inaugural address to speak about another issue that could be divisive during the upcoming session — prison construction.
The state Legislature twice failed to pass a plan pushed by former Gov. Robert Bentley that would have built four massive prisons — dubbed “mega-prisons” by some lawmakers. The new prisons would have replaced aging, dilapidated and overcrowded facilities in use today that were built decades ago.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn and the governor have argued new facilities are needed to improve conditions for inmates — conditions a federal judge last year called “horrendously inadequate.”
But again, divisions within the GOP caucus killed the proposal.
Ivey hinted that a new plan might be released soon.
“The status of our corrections system is an Alabama problem that must be solved by an Alabama solution,” Ivey said. “As your governor, I plan to do so. We are revitalizing our statewide corrections system by replacing costly, at-risk prison facilities. This effort will ensure that Alabama stays committed to statewide prison reform, and we will be announcing more detailed plans in the coming days.”
Despite the difficulties that may face Ivey’s legislative agenda in the upcoming session, she struck a positive tone in her speech.
“After all, these matters can be seen either as a challenge or an opportunity,” Ivey said. “I prefer to believe they are opportunities worthy of a state whose good people are fortunate to call Alabama their home.”
In contrast to Ivey, Ainsworth chose to focus on less controversial issues in his inaugural speech. He spoke largely about education and economic development.
Ainsworth, a former first-term state legislator, will oversee the state Senate as lieutenant governor.
“Let us work to be known as the state that leads the U.S. in job creation and economic development because our citizens possess a work ethic second to none and our workforce development efforts provide an army of job ready applicants,” Ainsworth said. “Let us work to be known as a state that demands excellence in the classroom and is willing to take the steps necessary to provide a world-class public education system.”
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Chip Brownlee, senior in journalism and political science, is the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman.
