Alabama is facing the most devastating financial abyss since the Great Depression. The Education and General funds are both in dire straits. State coffers are lower by $250 million than expected, and no federal stimulus money is available this year. The Democratic majority in the Legislature was more optimistic than pragmatic with their revenue projections when they were drafting the budgets last year. Their lack of prudence has left the state in deep proration, and the new Republican-led Legislature with a Herculean task.

This new Republican Legislature will have no qualms slicing and dicing state government. If the truth were known, most would favor doing away with Medicaid, which would definitely balance the General Fund. It would not be surprising to many insiders if they chose to balance the Education budget by rolling back teachers’ salaries to 1950s levels. These reactionary stalwart solons have no sacred cows, especially not the AEA.

This time last year Paul Hubbert, the pontiff of AEA, controlled the Legislature as he had for several decades. Governors would come and go and he would render them irrelevant in the process of budgeting education dollars, which accounts for over 70 percent of all tax dollars allocated in Alabama.

King Hubbert has been dethroned. He no longer writes the Education budget and has no say in the legislative process. The November election washed away most of his Democrats and power. The new Republicans set out to decapitate the king and his powerful union. Within a month of their victory, lame duck Gov. Bob Riley embarked on a mission to kill the king while he was down.

Riley called a special session under the guise of ethics reform. However, his priority and Bill No. 1 was an act to disallow teachers and school support personnel from paying their dues through automatic payroll deductions from state paychecks. This will have a chilling effect on the AEA and the State Employees Association. In essence they may have laughed at Riley but he had the last laugh. AEA represents more than 90 percent of Alabama’s teachers. Most of these members used payroll deduction to pay their dues.

Another shoe dropped on the once omnipotent king as the new legislative session began. This assault came on two new fronts: insurance and retirement programs.

The GOP Legislature is working on a bill to provide liability insurance for all Alabama teachers. For years, one of the primary incentives for educators to join the AEA was that the union provided liability insurance. The Republican Legislature dismantled the DROP program. They made quick work of ending this lucrative extra incentive retirement program enjoyed by high-income and high-profile education personnel. Dr. Hubbert and his cohort, Dr. Joe Reed, were the top two beneficiaries in this program. Both have over $1 million in the deferred retirement option program.

Yes, things do change in Alabama politics. In 2010, the AEA spent over $9 million on the elections. The anti-Democratic tsunami that engulfed Alabama rendered the expense meaningless. It is a safe bet that as the Republican legislators are crafting the state budgets for next year, they probably will not ask Dr. Hubbert to help them with their homework.

Steve Flowers’ political column appears weekly in 72 Alabama newspapers. He may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.