Output Taxonomy without Capitals or Spaces

Hi there I ran into a problem with a combination of the taxanomy module, pathauto and contemplates.

Currently I use this to output the Terms in the Vocabulary "State"

State: <?php foreach ((array)$taxonomy as $item) { ?>
          <?php if ($item->vid == 1): ?>
          <a href="<?php print base_path() . "taxonomy/term/" . $item->tid; ?>"><?php print $item->name ?></a>
          <?php endif; ?>

Which would output something Like: taxonomy/term/1

But I also use Pathauto to set an alias to: state/new-york

and I would therefore rather output the alias like this

State: <?php foreach ((array)$taxonomy as $item) { ?>
          <?php if ($item->vid == 1): ?>
          <a href="<?php print base_path() . "state/" . $item->name; ?>"><?php print $item->name ?></a>
          <?php endif; ?>

but that would output: state/New York

Could anyone perhaps explain how i could get rid of the capitals and convert spaces to dashes in between? I imagine this should be possible.

Cheers