Katherine Green Robertson

By Katherine Robertson Alabama Political Reporter This is Part 1 of API’s 3-part “Budget Basics” series, exploring Alabama’s budget system, the current fiscal climate and related challenges, and the implications for taxpayers. Many taxpayers are familiar with the federal budgeting system, thanks to incessant coverage of budget standoffs, government shutdowns, and increasing national debt. Yet … Continued

By Katherine Green Robertson Female voters are a bloc that receives a lot of focus during election years. Campaign consultants spend countless hours trying to answer questions like, “How do we reach women?” “What issues do they care about?” and “How do we convince them that our party will serve their best interests?”  But most … Continued

By Katherine Green Robertson It’s been a bad year for the Obama Administration at the U.S. Supreme Court.  Just last week the Court released opinions striking down three of the President’s recess appointments and nullifying a law that prevented pro-life protests in certain spaces around abortion clinics. Today, the Court handed down its long awaited … Continued

By Katherine Green Robertson It was predicted that voters would stay home on June 3rd without a tight race for Governor at the top of the ticket, and this proved to be true. The meager 22% statewide turnout indicates a high level of apathy as an electorate toward state and local races, despite the fact … Continued

By Katherine G. Robertson Alabama Political Reporter On Monday, May 5th, the United States Supreme Court upheld the practice of Greece, a small town in the State of New York, to open monthly town meetings in prayer.  The two plaintiffs (one a Jewish woman and the other an atheist woman) filed suit in a New … Continued

By Katherine Green Robertson Alabama Policy Institute With the Governor’s sign-off, the state’s budgets for both the Education Trust Fund and the General Fund are now set for fiscal year 2015.  Of the $1.8 billion budgeted for the General Fund, spending on corrections is the second largest line item, behind only Medicaid, at $394 million … Continued

By Katherine Green Robertson Under the Obama Administration, “reforms” to federal assistance programs have simply increased the programs’ recipients and spending rather than implementing more oversight or accountability. Specifically, the Administration has taken proactive steps to recruit Americans into programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and water down eligibility requirements for the Temporary … Continued

By Katherine Robertson Alabama Political Reporter “If you want to tackle a tough issue, wait until after the election.” This is one of the most understood ‘rules’ in politics. Unfortunately, elections never stop and oftentimes, the “tough issues” just get set aside in hopes that the problem will go away-at least until after the next … Continued