Almost five months after cruising to re-election with a historic 64 percent of the vote, Gov. Robert Bentley Monday opened another campaign, of sorts.

And unlike the fall general election this one promises to be no cakewalk.

Bentley came to the state's largest city Monday to begin an intensive week of traveling the state to push his plan to raise taxes to plug a $700 million hole in the state's budget that pays for needs such as public safety, health care for the poor and old, and infrastructure needs such as highway and bridge construction and repair.

Bentley met with about 100 of the city's business and civic leaders in a get together arranged by the Birmingham Business Alliance, an organization composed of some of the most important businesses in Birmingham, and Alabama. It's an organization Bentley very much hopes to win over to his argument even though his plan would cause some of the businesses in the BBA - banks, automobile dealerships and insurance companies - to pay a bit more to the state.

Today the governor will be in Dothan. On Thursday he travels to Huntsville and on Friday to Mobile. At each stop he hopes to woo businesses to his side. He will also take time to visit a restaurant or diner where he hopes to meet people and maybe press his case.

The message he is pressing is essentially this, as he told the BBA crowd:

"What I want yall to do for me is to look at the fairness of these (tax increases), because they are fair. To look at whether you want to live on food stamps and minimum wage in this state for the rest of your life. Or whether or not you want to really improve education in the state of Alabama or you want to solve the problems we have in this state or if you want to pay back the debts we have in this state. There is nothing more conservative than paying your debts and getting your fiscal house in order. We have to do the right thing."

Bentley asked the group to do something else.

"Please give your legislators some cover. It's hard to vote for a tax, especially if you ran on a no tax pledge. So give them some cover (meaning tell them you support the hikes). If we want something in this state, we are going to have to pay for it. If you are honest with the people - and I'm not trying to call it something other than taxes - it is taxes. Somebody has got to pay taxes. I'm not trying to sugar coat it. But people understand and I believe we are going to get this passed. But give them (legislators) some cover."

Bentley closed with words that seemed to me to show maturity from his days in the Alabama House of Representatives where he opposed any tax hike and from his first four years in office where he never left his comfort zone.

"You know, it's easy to run. ... But it's not easy to govern. It's easy to say you are going to do something. But when you get in there and see what the problems really are, when it's all on your shoulders, when you have to make tough decisions, and you have to be tough, then you have to say I am going to make the right decision whether I get re-elected or not."

Of course, the irony for Bentley is that his epiphany has come after he was re-elected in November. The governor's challenge now is to convince mostly Republican lawmakers to do what he did not do until after his election.

I've been criticized by many for supporting the governor's tax package. I've called it bold. And after a lifetime covering state government, I have no doubt it is needed.

Bentley has said he only made up his mind that new taxes were needed after being informed of the true depth of the budget hole just after November's election.

I don't think the governor is lying about that. But I also think after eight years in the Legislature and four years as governor he can't pretend he did not know that the state's needs exceeded its dollars.

But just because you did not dare to be bold in the past should not keep you from trying to be bold now. And I think the governor is trying to do just that.