Frank M. Dixon - Governor of Alabama

Governor of Alabama

Before his inauguration Dixon spent an extensive amount of time preparing for his term. He met with Bibb Graves, public administration experts and Franklin Roosevelt to get advice and expertise on his plans for changing Alabama’s government. As governor, Dixon strove to streamline the state government. He eliminated twenty-seven government agencies in the state by consolidating duties within the departments. The agencies that originally were under the leadership of committees were placed under the authority of one individual who reported directly to the governor. He, therefore, also centralized power in the office of the governor. He terminated the employment of every state employee added to the payroll after the date of his inauguration and ordered every employee that did not have specific duties to be terminated as well. He pushed through a teachers’ retirement system and a teacher tenure law. He also established a state civil service system that required the hiring of state employees to be based on a merit system.

Dixon spent a great amount of time reforming the property tax assessment method in the state. Dixon believed that the property tax review boards that were assigned by the county deliberately under-assessed property taxes. This, in turn, led to inadequately supported school districts and municipal services. He pushed through his reform bill that required local assessment boards be replaced by a three-person board, which would be appointed by the governor.

As World War II began at the end of his term, Dixon’s accomplishments only increased. He oversaw a wartime reorganization of the docks in Mobile, Alabama that resulted in a four-hundred percent increase in barge traffic. Alabama’s economy flourished with the ship building and repairing industry brought about by the war.