July 01, 2009
The Alabama Legislature, as a governmental body, is thought of pretty lowly. Most states citizenry hold legislatures as a whole in low esteem, but Alabamians consider our legislature a body of rogues.
It i hard to argue with that assessment when you look at the past three years’ performance and lack of accomplishment. Basically, the only thing that has gotten any quick legislative approval is a 62% pay raise for themselves. Legislators even took a page from congress and attached an amendment to their 2007 pay increase whereby they get an automatic cost of living increase every two years, which activated this year automatically increasing their pay by $1800 per year at a time when most Alabamians are grasping to make ends meet and many are losing their jobs.
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June 24, 2009
As the 2009 Regular Legislative Session comes to an end, we are approaching the end of the quadrennium. It is at this point that plans are beginning to be laid for the 2010 Alabama elections. There will be a special interest in the Legislative races. Even though we will have a hotly contested open Governor’s race, the battle for control of the Legislature will be at the forefront of the special interests money and attention.
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June 17, 2009
Fuller Kimbrell is a legend in Alabama politics. He turns 100 years old this Saturday, June 20 and a party is planned for him in Tuscaloosa. Kimbrell has written two books on his life and times entitled, “From the Farm House to the Statehouse” and “The Life and Times of Fuller Kimbrell.” He has just completed a third book, which he will be signing at his 100th birthday party Saturday.
Fuller Kimbrell was born one of ten boys in 1909 to a poor farm family in Berry, Alabama. In 1936, during the Depression, Kimbrell migrated to Fayette, the county seat and largest city in Fayette County. From 1936 to 1948, Kimbrell had a John Deere dealership. Under his leadership, it grew from one of the smallest to one of the largest in the South.
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June 10, 2009
On the last day of the Legislative Session I was visiting with some friends in the Senate Chambers on the seventh floor of the Statehouse. When it became apparent they were finished with their business for the year and were going to adjourn the Session sine die in about an hour, I meandered two floors down to the House Chamber. My old House seat was empty, so I sat down in my old chair to visit with Alan Boothe from Troy who took over my House seat when I retired in 1998.
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June 03, 2009
Although the marquee issues, such as the removal of sales tax from groceries, the ethics overhaul, relief for the PACT program and the adoption of the plan to regulate and tax bingo, failed to pass during the just ended Legislative Session, some legislation did make it through the legislative labyrinth.
Legislation that would allow a resort hotel and convention center to be built at a state park on the Alabama coast won legislative approval. This move was a compromise that allows a privately operated hotel and state operated convention center to be built at the location of the old motel at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores. The hotel site has been dormant since being devastated by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 because of disagreements over how to proceed.
May 27, 2009
The 2009 Legislative Session is now history. It was basically a carbon copy of the previous two of this quadrennium. It could be rated a little better because it did not end with a fist fight and the budgets were passed. Although there was more activity and some legislation actually passed, most of the high profile issues failed.
The two state budgets were easier to craft because there is very little money. In lean years there is very little discretion and less room for contention. As in the past six years, the Democratic Legislature essentially ignored the Republican Governor’s budget and initiatives. The Governor’s proposed ethics overhaul never saw the light of day. It did not even get addressed by a legislative committee until the waning days of the Session.
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May 20, 2009
Politics never ends in Alabama. The Governor’s Race every four years is the brass ring and the speculation as to who will run and who will win starts early. The jockeying has begun and so has the handicapping of the favorites by the political insiders in Montgomery.
Let me share with you a theory and indeed a trend that portends victory in the Alabama Governor’s Race. Over the last 20 years, the key to victory is to avoid a tough bruising intra party struggle for your party’s nomination.
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May 13, 2009
As late as 1982, when I was first elected to the Legislature, almost everybody ran as a Democrat. There were only a handful of Republicans and they came from wealthy suburban enclaves of Mountain Brook in Birmingham, Spring Hill in Mobile, or the silk-stocking neighborhoods of Montgomery. They would simply align with the majority, who were conservative Democrats.
If truth were known, the vast majority of those conservative Democrats were closet Republicans. If the voting curtain was exposed you would see that these Democrats probably voted Republican for President. Therefore, there were no partisan fights or controversies. Instead, you were either a pro business conservative or a progressive and referred to as a real Democrat. Your alliance was determined more by which special interest group you aligned with rather than by party.
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May 06, 2009
Next year will be a big election year in Alabama with all the constitutional offices and the entire legislature on the ballot. It will be especially interesting with an open Governor’s race. It will also be an important watershed year because of the census.
Our constitution calls for there to be a headcount every decade. This census is to ensure that all Americans and all Alabamians are accounted for and given equal representation in Congress and the Legislature. Each congressional and legislative seat is required to have the same number of people with very little deviation. The census takers will be out taking the count during 2010 while the elections are being conducted. Therefore, the redistricting or reapportionment of the legislative and congressional districts will not be redrawn until after the census figures are taken.
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April 29, 2009
The federal stimulus spending package is manna from heaven for the Alabama Legislature. Alabama, along with every other state, is facing the bleakest and most ominous financial shortfall since the Great Depression. States like California and New York, which do not have constitutional provisions prohibiting deficit spending like we do in Alabama, are facing Armageddon. The Obama/Democratic stimulus bill will rescue legislators from a catastrophic nightmare when trying to craft a budget for the 2010 fiscal year.
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