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Wasteful session: What's the problem? It's
the Constitution
by Craig
Baab
Special to The Anniston Star also printed in The Birmingham
News
The state Legislature's special session is expected to approve some "fix" for Jefferson County's fiscal crisis. While essential in the near term, this is bad news for the county long term, for all residents of Alabama, for the educational system and for democracy. What most of us don't understand, but must, is that the underlying reason that this special session had to be called in the first place is Alabama's anti-democratic and dysfunctional 1901 Constitution.
A central tenant of the 1901 framers, which they brilliantly accomplished, was to give no real authority to county governments, but instead to require counties to come to Montgomery for state-level approval for virtually every local decision. This plan by the framers takes from each of us in all 67 counties the God-given power to control our own lives and welfare by voting what we consider our best interests.
Why is this bad for Jefferson County and the rest of us? As long as we continue to be forced to take local decisions to Montgomery we will never have the control we as citizens inherently have. As long as we go to 140 legislators in Montgomery to solve our problems, we will never have the courage to demand the kind of a 21st-century Constitution we all deserve.
Why is this special session bad news for Alabama's children? When members of the Legislature returned to the Statehouse (at taxpayer expense), they didn't examine serious educational funding issues currently plaguing the state. Students and educators are flocking back to their classrooms to learn and grow. With the start of the next fiscal year this fall, those educators will exact 11 percent proration cuts that will further undercut the good our teachers are trying to do. Despite pleas from superintendents in Pell City and Elba, education funding is off the table.
Riley's spokesman, Todd Stacy, said, "The governor wants to limit it to only one issue. With something that important, we don't need any distractions." So, the problems of one county are "important," while the needs of our children are "distractions." Rather than tackling a problem with enormous statewide implications that by definition is a major responsibility of the state Legislature, the special session will deal with an issue that confronts only a single county. Is that smart governing?
Now is the time for the people of Jefferson County, and of the other 66 counties, to stand up and demand the return of control over our own affairs and property. Some have suggested that the endless incompetence and waste in Jefferson County shows why we do not need to give more authority to local governments. To the contrary, most of the current problems resulted from relentless state legislative meddling in local affairs. County officials are elected, and if they make imprudent decisions, they can be voted out of office.
In the 2009 session, 396 bills were introduced that had local rather than statewide implications. Sixty-four of the 198 bills that passed (32 percent), affected only localities. More alarming is that 332 local bills concerning matters important to 58 counties also did not pass.
So, sorry, Etowah, about no more money going to Gadsden State. Sorry, Autauga, Chilton and Elmore, that your request for greater arrest power will have to wait. Sorry, Lee, that additional judge is not going to happen, yet. Sorry, Mobile, board of education security officers can't be armed, at least not this year. And sorry, Calhoun, we just can't find the time to pass your special tax appropriation for the education foundation. And on it goes.
This special session should be the last one held for such local legislation. Now is the time for all Alabamians to demand that our elected state officials and legislators forge a new state Constitution that will return democratic rule to the people and provide a constitutional framework to assure good governance, adequate resources to meet the needs of the people and equal rights and protections for all. Insist that every legislative and gubernatorial candidate in 2010 support a better constitution. Now.
Craig H. Baab is a senior fellow for policy and development at the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice. E-mail: craig.baab@alabamaappleseed.org.