CENTRE —When someone with as much legislative experience as Rep. Richard Lindsey speaks about the current state of state government in Alabama, it may be wise to listen.

Lindsey, D-Centre, has been speaking on behalf of the people of House District 39 since 1983. Last week, during an exclusive sit-down interview with The Post, Lindsey said he has never seen state services cut to the extremes of the past five years.

“The cuts to both the education and General Fund budgets really began back in 2008 and 2009,” Lindsey said last week. “Every facet of state government has now been cut in some way.”

Citing official state budget numbers, Lindsey said education spending cuts have cost the state 28,000 jobs over the past five years.

“That includes teachers and support personnel,” Lindsey said. “The way we have accommodated that cut is by increasing class sizes and by having less custodial and lunchroom staff.”

Lindsey said he regularly receives letters from constituents complaining about the cuts to education.

“I think more than class size, there are complaints about not having supplies,” Lindsey said. “That's because our teachers always adapt and do they best they can.”

Lindsey said cuts have a long-term effect in every classroom in Alabama.

“We haven't funded textbooks since 2008, and there's not been any state money for technology,” he said. “That means we've got a lot of computers, a lot of textbooks that are getting out of date, and they are going to cost even more to replace down the road.”

Lindsey said teachers have seen their pay effectively cut, both because their contributions to their retirement funds have been raised since 2010 and because they haven't had a pay raise in years—even as inflation continues its slow climb upward.

Regarding the General Fund, Lindsey said the state's prison system is to the point of having to make some drastic decisions.

“We've been cutting back there for a number of years and our guards force is at a bare minimum, a dangerous level,” Lindsey said. “If they get any further reductions, according to budget hearings and other information I get, they are going to have to start releasing prisoners in some way, through the parole board.”

Lindsey said the state Health Department now has many fewer employees conducting services such as restaurant inspections and checking septic tanks installations. He said the Department of Public Safety has seen its budget cut by nearly 40 percent.

“We had 750 troopers in 2008, and now we're at 650,” Lindsey said. “The cars and computers are older. They had an $87 million budget in 2008 and they're now at $54 million.”

Lindsey said the Department of Agriculture has seen inspectors—those who make sure gas pumps are calibrated correctly and weight scales are accurate—cut from nearly 30 to five to cover the entire state.

In the state Transportation Department, spending power for road paving supplies and equipment has been cut by over 35 percent since 2008, cuts Lindsey called “critical”.

“We had a five-year roads plan that was $4 billion worth of projects,” Lindsey said. “That plan has been cut to $1.5 billion over ten years. The impact on the public is that roads are going to gradually get worse and there are going to be fewer four-lane highways where we need them.”

Lindsey said considering the economic decline the state and nation have endured over the past several years, there isn't a long list of easy answers. But he thinks there are a few solutions everyone should logically be able to agree on.

“The first is online sales,” Lindsey said. “There's more than a hundred million in tax dollars to be captured from online sales. That takes federal action and for the past ten years, Congress has refused to act.”

Lindsey said another idea involves a bill he has introduced for the past several years that would force out-of-state companies doing business in Alabama to pay taxes.

“We would not be taxing our citizens, we would be taxing people who come into our state, make money and then take all that money out of Alabama without paying their taxes,” Lindsey said. “It's wrong and it needs to be fixed.”

Lindsey said a lot of the spending cuts that have passed into law in Montgomery over the past few years have been effective at reducing waste. But he insisted there is a point where a cut-at-all-costs mentality simply becomes too costly.

“We've accomplished all we can accomplish but cutting,” Lindsey said. “Now we have to decide if the people want the remaining services, and if they do we've got to see what we can do to provide those services instead of simply cutting everything off.”