For many years Alabama had one of the lowest unemployment tax rates in the nation. We also paid some of the lowest benefits.

So when the recession hit a few years back, Alabama’s unemployment trust fund dried up quickly and ran out of money in 2009. To shore up the fund, a tax increase from $119 to $267 per employee was levied on Alabama businesses and the state had to borrow $283 million from the U.S. Treasury to pay benefits.

We weren’t alone in this situation. Thirty states had to borrow from the federal government.

On the same day in 2009, unemployment hit a 26-year high and the state placed in effect a $10 increase in unemployment compensation, which had been passed by the legislature in 2008.

The maximum benefit for those applying for unemployment compensation increased from $255 a week to $265 a week for those who filed for assistance after July 5, 2009, according to a release from the Department of Industrial Relations.

Then last week the State Department of Industrial Relations reported that most of the borrowed funds have been repaid and the department is “projecting a positive balance by early 2012.”

Federal law, however, doesn’t permit a state to pay interest with unemployment tax revenue so this expense must be assessed to employers throughout the state.

Each employer is being assessed 0.07 percent (7 hundredths of 1 percent) of taxable wages for the year immediately proceeding the calendar years when the interest payment became necessary. It’s not a great burden for a small business, but for a business with a $10 million payroll, it’s nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

Lobbyist Bob Riley

A few eyebrows were raised recently when former Gov. Bob Riley, recouping from his motorcycle wreck injuries in Alaska, announced from his condo hideaway in Sarasota … or somewhere … that he is turning lobbyist.

On his lobbyist registration statement Riley listed two firms; one was Gulf Coast Asphalt Co., based in Houston, which contributed $50,000 to the state Republican Party to help pay his daughter, Minda, who was working for the party in 2004 and 2005; and another, the Australian company Austel, to which he directed $5 million in economic development grants during his tenure as governor.

His list of clients also included EADS North America. EADS in February lost a competition with Boeing to build new refueling tanker aircraft for the Air Force in Mobile. Riley spent years campaigning for EADS to win the tanker contract.

The Independent reported on the Gulf Asphalt $50,000 contribution to the State GOP a couple of years back. It was at the time Marty Connors was executive director of the party, but he refused to comment at the time. Our source, a member of various party committees, told us, and party records also indicated that Minda Riley was paid an amount in various checks that nearly matched the Gulf Coast Asphalt contribution.

Gulf Coast Asphalt already operated a tank-farm terminal at the site on the east bank of the Mobile River and was also seeking at $40 million Gulf Opportunity Zone bond allocation from Riley.

We were also told that when Connors called the governor to report the $50,000 contribution and suggest how to spend it, Riley told him in no uncertain terms that the contribution was “Minda’s money.”

Riley also reported that he would also be representing Brett Real Estate, Robinson Development Co. in Saraland; and VT Systems Inc. in Alexandria, Va., parent of a company that operates an aircraft maintenance facility in Mobile.

State Ethics Commission Director Jim Sumner said state law bars Riley from lobbying the governor’s office until he’s been out of office at least two years, but Riley is free to lobby other executive offices, the Legislature and regulatory boards.Bob Martin is editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent. Email him at: bob@montgomeryindependent.com.