April 16, 2015
As the world turns in Alabama politics, a lot has happened in the first three months of 2015. After Inauguration Day, a federal judge in Mobile ruled Alabama’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was not constitutional under federal law. In appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court it was obvious that the high tribunal conferred with the lower court ruling and gave every indication that they would render a final edict on the subject come June. By midsummer same-sex marriage will be the law of the land as decreed by the omnipotent U.S. Supreme Court.
There is not much that our state leaders/politicians can do but bark at the moon, which is exactly what our stalwart, religious, Ten Commandments Judge Roy Moore has done quite valiantly and in vain. He has ridden his high horse from Gallant again, much to the delight of our very religious state. Moore gallantly instructed the probate judges to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. He made national news and further endeared himself to his evangelical base.Read more
April 09, 2015
Alabama’s senior and premier political reporter, Phil Rawls, has retired. Phil spent 35 years reporting on Alabama politics for the Associated Press. He was simply the best. He was fair and accurate. His 40 years of covering the State Capitol made him easily the longest serving member of Alabama’s Capitol press corps.
Phil is a native of Covington County. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alabama. We have been friends since our days together at the University. His departure leaves a real void in the day-to-day coverage of Alabama politics.
Even though the State’s General Fund appears to be on the brink of disaster, there could be a rainbow or two at the end of the tunnel. Congress may pass legislation that will require payment of sales tax on internet purchases and eventually we will reap a bonanza from BP on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This should not deter the legislature from acting on the acute problems that confront the General Fund. However, it could offer some comfort that relief may be on the way and it will be like manna from heaven.Read more
April 02, 2015
In recent years, the Republican Party has taken control of the legislatures in all of the southern states. Alabama’s legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. The GOP holds a 25 to 9 majority in the State Senate and an equally dominating 72 to 33 majority in the House of Representatives.
Our supermajority GOP legislative body appeared to take on every conceivable ultraconservative reactionary issue during their first four year reign from 2011 to 2014. However, they forgot one. Charter schools.
The idea of charter schools is a hot button litmus issue within the Republican legislative ranks. Alabama has now joined the ranks of states that allow for charter schools. Both the super majority Republican House and Senate passed the measure like a shot out of a cannon within the first two weeks of the session. The vote fell right along party lines with most GOP legislators supporting the proposal.Read more
March 26, 2015
Our good doctor governor, Robert Bentley, has done a thorough physical exam on the state’s finances and his diagnosis is that the General Fund needs additional revenue. His Republican comrades in the legislature have been trying to starve the patient for the past four years. If the patient is an analogy to the state government, the approach over the past four years has been to put the patient on a rigid diet of starvation and bleeding to death in pretty much the same way that George Washington’s doctors did in his day. The patient according to basic tenets of medicine or government should weigh about 180 pounds. The legislature has starved the patient/government to 120 pounds of skin and bones.
In defense of these ultraconservative legislators, if truth were known, they would probably do away with state government altogether or simply let the patient die. However, in reality, we actually need roads to drive on and state troopers to give aid to motorists. Some people like to have a court system to punish people who commit heinous crimes and if you have a judicial system and the judge sentences someone to prison then you have got to have a prison to house them.Read more
March 19, 2015
Alabama may be in the lower tier of the country in some categories but not when it comes to providing health insurance for children. In that one category we excel.
Brian Lyman with the Montgomery Advertiser provided an excellent study revealing that Alabama leads the south in taking care of its young people when it comes to giving them health coverage. A recent Georgetown University study showed that Alabama leads the south when it comes to healthcare for children. Remarkably we are ranked in the top 10 states in America.Read more
March 12, 2015
The Common Core education topic is not only a hot political issue in Alabama, it has become a political football nationwide and it appears to be a hot potato in the looming 2016 GOP presidential contest.
As soon as Jeb Bush announced that he would “actively explore” a 2016 presidential bid, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, also a potential candidate and Tea Party Libertarian said, “We need leaders who will stand against Common Core.” The right wing candidates like Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin have staked out positions against Common Core.Read more
March 05, 2015
The first regular legislative session of the quadrennium has begun. Legislators have arrived in Montgomery for their three and a half month session and they will face a myriad of problems and issues.
The General Fund Budget has been in the doldrums for several years. The chickens have to come home to roost. There is a crisis looming in the prisons. The continuing escalating cost of Medicaid further exasperates a desperate situation for the General Fund.
Ever since my boyhood there has been a perennial call to rewrite our antiquated State Constitution. The constitutional reform people will come at the revamping issue again with renewed fervor. The question is do you address the update article by article or in total. Indeed, our 1901 Constitution is lengthy and cumbersome with more than 800 amendments.Read more
February 26, 2015
The first legislative session of the quadrennium convenes next week. It is no secret that the state is broke. Fiscal problems left over from the Riley administration that were swept under the rug for four years are finally front and center. The chickens have come home to roost, so to speak.
The General Fund is projected to be over $260 million short of the amount needed to maintain the state’s basic operations in the next fiscal year, which begins October 1.Read more
February 19, 2015
The legislature and the governor are preparing for the first Regular Session of the quadrennium. The Session will begin March 3.
Legislators need to arrive in Montgomery with their lunch pails and sleeves rolled up ready to go to work because the proverbial chickens have come home to roost. They are facing a gargantuan budget crisis in the State General Fund. They cannot spend this four years cussing Obama Care and passing unconstitutional and meaningless bills dealing with federal issues like immigration and abortion.Read more
February 12, 2015
As the legislature and governor prepare for the upcoming initial legislative session of the quadrennium, they are facing ominous and obvious problems. The General Fund is in dire straits, primarily due to the escalating costs of Medicaid and prisons.
The problems in the Prison System may be even more acute than with Medicaid. The reason is that our prison population is well in excess of what federal courts have determined is constitutional. There are federal judicial standards of humane care for prisoners and we currently are not within these guidelines. Therefore, we are on thin ice and shaky ground if our prison problems come before a federal judge.
The remedy they might adjudicate could be more expensive than our fixing the problem ourselves. History has a way of repeating itself. We have been dealt this card before in the Heart of Dixie.Read more