An Alabama DOGE? YES!

February 19, 2025– Governor Ivey’s FY 2026 General Fund budget is making its way through the Legislature. At just over $3.7 billion, it’s some $340 million more than last year, and the largest budget she’s ever sent across the street. There are winners and losers, as there always are, but at a glance it seems pretty reasonable.

The budget even contains some $40 million in Corrections Capital Improvement Funds IF certain “conditions” are met. No, I don’t know what the “conditions” are—I’ve worked hard NOT to find out, because I’m reasonably sure I don’t WANT to know.

Pity that $40 million won’t be nearly enough.

Remember back in 2021 when we were told it would “only” cost $1.3 billion to build two mega prisons? Turns out that number was “slightly off,” according to State Senator Greg Albritton.

Sen. Albritton has introduced SB60, which would increase the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority’s bond issuance limit from $785 million to $1.285 billion–a cool $500 million more!

That’s in addition to the $400 million from the American Rescue Plan and $142 million from the State’s General Fund, that was agreed to in 2021.

Oh, don't worry! The good Senator assures us that they’ve got the money on hand to finish the first prison in Elmore County—just over $1 billion—but only about 60% of the money they need to finish the Escambia County facility.

In a completely unrelated note, Sen. Albritton represents Escambia, Washington and parts of Baldwin and Mobile Counties.

Where else but in government is a $500 million cost overrun considered “slightly off?”

Who was responsible for this “slightly off” figure, and when were they fired?

Where did the increased costs come from? We all know the inflation rate these last four miserable years under Biden was over 20%—but 20% is a long way from 50%!

Maybe it’s just me being suspicious (or maybe I’ve lived in this State for a looooong time), but this doesn’t pass the smell test.

What this smells like to me is somebody trying to pull a fast one on the Legislature and tax payers of Alabama. “We can build one, but we can only build 60% of the second” is just too obvious a ploy. We have to have these prisons, period. Now we either abandon the second one for now (and lose what time and money’s been sunk into it already) or agree to this massive bond hike.

And yes, we’ll wind up building the second one anyway, under a federal court order. Yes, it’s that bad.

Is it just possible that we were sold a bill of goods back in 2021? Or is somebody trying to pull a USAID-level scam on us? Or is it both?

I don’t know, but I certainly know how to find out.

We need an Alabama Department of Government Efficiency. Call it…ALDOGE.

Elon Musk’s DOGE has already saved American taxpayers just shy of $50 billion, probably more by the time you read this. He and his merry band of tech nerds have turned DC’s graft, fraud, corruption and waste schemes inside out, and they’re just getting started.

We have several tech powerhouse universities in this State. I’m confident we can find our very own tech nerds. We can find a nerd wrangler or three—if you know anything about nerds, you’ll know why.

We can ply them with pizza rolls and energy drinks, get them to duplicate the algorithms Musk’s group is using, and turn them loose in Montgomery.

Even if ALDOGE only finds 1% waste, fraud and abuse in the General Fund, that’ll be nearly $40 million dollars. I’m betting that it’ll be a bit more than that.

Their first target: the Department of Corrections’ Capital Improvement unit. We need to know just why those figures are “slightly off.” We almost certainly need to go ahead and pass SB60 (it’s currently in committee in the House), but there’s no requirement the entire $1.285 billion needs to be borrowed if we can help it.

I call on a brave Representative or Senator to introduce a bill creating the Alabama Department of Governmental Efficiency. There is still plenty of time in this session to get it done and signed by MeeMaw (we love our MeeMaw!). Don’t tell me there’s not.

Somebody in the State House needs to step up and do this for the people of Alabama. And, when it’s introduced, we need to pay careful attention to who opposes it, and why. Because 2026 is coming, and all those State offices come up for de-election….

Alabama won’t be the first to do this. Kentucky State Senator Lindsey Tichnor and State Reps. TJ Roberts and John Hobson have filed complimentary bills in their Senate and House to create the Kentucky Office of Government Efficiency, KOGE.

We need an ALDOGE now! The only question is which Senator(s) and Representative(s) will be bold enough to introduce the bill?

References, as always, will be added when this is posted to my Substack, DocContrarian.Substack.com.

Dr. Bill Chitwood is a retired Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatrist who does political consulting and media relations. He is the author of Beyond Maga, available on Amazon under his pen name, Doc Contrarian. He can be found on Substack and social media as @DocContrarian.

Opinions expressed in the Alabama Gazette are the opinions and viewpoints of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Alabama Gazette staff, advertisers, and/or publishers.