“sun moon stars rain” – E.E. Cummings

Welcome to 2026.

We hit a few moments of turbulence, but we finally got all the wheels of the airplane that was 2025 down on the runway last week.

Before we close the book on the previous year, let’s take a look at the highlights and lowlights of Alabama government and politics for auld lang syne. Let me go ahead here with the disclaimer that I will somehow forget to include an event that is glaringly obvious, so I apologize in advance.

Probably the biggest news of the year is the relocation of the U.S. Department of Defense Space Command headquarters from its makeshift home in Colorado Springs to what should be a permanent location in Huntsville.

This has been a major goal for Alabama’s federal legislative delegation. Their ability to get President Donald Trump to push this project forward relatively quickly is a feather in their collective cap.

Part of that legislative delegation is U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, whom we might now consider something of a trendsetter in Alabama politics. His successful run for Senate five years ago and him now being the clear favorite in the upcoming gubernatorial election might have inspired several sports-related people to dip their toes into politics in 2025.

Former Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl, former Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron and current sports talk show host Paul Finebaum all publicly mulled making a run for elected office, though all eventually decided to stay in their respective lanes in the sports world.

Elsewhere, healthcare and health insurance ended up being a major storyline in the arena of public policy.

The years-long trend of hospital closures, near closures, and reductions in services offered by healthcare providers continued. In the last several weeks Montgomery’s Jackson Hospital exemplified this struggle as it tries to stay afloat after defaulting on $60 million in outstanding bonds.

Hospital leadership is suing Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama for damages for what the hospital claims are chronic Medicare underpayments by the insurance giant.

In fact, BCBS of Alabama had a rough 2025 overall. A bill passed by the Alabama Legislature that deals with how insurance companies reimburse locally based pharmacies for filling prescriptions led to higher costs for BCBS, some of which are being passed on to customers.

The Legislature also passed a law allowing Alfa Insurance to offer “health benefits” plans, which operate similarly to health insurance plans and create additional competition for BCBS.

Alabama’s criminal justice system also had its time in the spotlight. The Legislature passed a law in the final hours of its regular session to provide some additional, though modest, qualified immunity protections for law enforcement officers.

Gov. Kay Ivey also declined to reappoint Leigh Gwathney to the Alabama Pardons and Parole Board after the board came under scrutiny for a massive reduction in paroles granted during her term as board chair.

Part of that criticism was due to state prisons already being overcrowded and understaffed with correctional officers. The state’s attempt to improve the prison system by building two new facilities designed to hold 4,000 inmates each, unfortunately, continued to run into completion date delays and cost overruns in 2025.

The biggest headline in state education likely would be the passage of the RAISE Act, which will provide at least $549 million over three years to public schools for students living in poverty, students with disabilities, English-language learners, gifted students and charter school students.

On tax issues some of the state’s larger municipalities have joined a lawsuit challenging the state’s formula for distributing sales tax revenue from online purchases. Many smaller municipalities and county commissions have banded together to support the current distribution formula.

The Legislature also voted to reduce the sales tax collected by the state for food purchases by 1 percent.

And, finally, it appears Ivey and Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth may never see eye to eye on prioritizing roadway projects in the state. Alabama Daily News correspondent Mary Sell reported the state sold $730 million worth of bonds in mid-December for the West Alabama Corridor project.

When complete, drivers will be able to travel between Tuscaloosa and Mobile completely by four-lane highway.

Ainsworth, who has loudly touted expanding Interstate 65 to at least six lanes throughout the entire state, slammed the state’s financial commitment for the corridor, particularly the absence of any matching funding coming from the federal government.

So slap a bow on 2025, and send it on its way. For better and for worse, we will not see a year quite like it ever again.