title:  GOP Governor Blocks Minimum Wage Increase, Gives Staff +$70k Raise
text: In February 2016, the city of Birmingham, Alabama voted to increase its minimum wage by $2.85. It would have increased on March 1st to $8.50 and then again to $10.10 a year later, but Republican Governor of Alabama Robert Bentley recently signed a bill banning cities from implementing any sort of minimum wage increases, while the state s minimum wage remains at the federal minimum of $7.25. Alabama remains one of the few states in the country without a state minimum wage law. Republicans used the same old argument in opposition of increasing the minimum wage, alleging it hurts businesses and the economy, when  in reality increasing minimum wage stimulates the economy by putting more money into the hands of the working class, especially in Alabama which has one of the highest poverty rates in the country.While Governor Bentley seems fixated on striking down any progressive reforms in his state, especially ones related to the national progressive movement to fight for a living wage of $15 an hour, it has been recently reported that the Governor gave his staff exorbitant raises in the past year.Four of his cabinet members received a raise of $73, 405 from their previous $91,000 salaries. Many of his other staff members received raises as well. Even many of his Republican colleagues felt obligated to vocalize their opposition to the raises. The Bentley administration says the state is broke,  Republican candidate for the Alabama State Board of Education, Jackie Zeigler, told the Alabama Political Reporter.  They have denied pay increases for teachers, State employees and retirees. They closed five State parks and cut back others. They closed 31 drivers license offices. They gutted the State Auditor s budget. They took 100 State troopers off the road. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, they were giving themselves huge pay raises. Cutting the normal people but adding to their own pay. This needs to stop. Just a few months ago, Governor Bentley took flack for using grant money from the BP Oil Spill meant to revamp affected beach communities on the Alabama coast to repair and renovate a second Governor s mansion, estimated to cost the state $1.8 million. With a Governor like this, Alabama, like most of the Republican strongholds in the south, are likely to remain hubs of poverty and growing wealth inequality.Featured image via Flickr