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By Tom Scarritt
The Birmingham News
January 28, 2001

   Change can't happen unless enough people are dissatisfied with the status quo, unless there's a model for a better future, unless there's a way to get there. These factors must outweigh the cost and barriers to change.

   So far, it seems, the public discussion about the need to reform Alabama's restrictive and inadequate constitution has not tipped the scales in Gov. Don Siegelman's mind. He has not been willing to lead the charge for change.

   We hope to change his mind.

   With proper leadership, the people of Alabama will come to understand how severely the current constitution limits their lives and their children's future. They will be dissatisfied.

   With proper leadership, the people of Alabama will embrace the vision of a design for state government that is more fair, more flexible and more responsive to their needs.

   With proper leadership, the people of Alabama will support a process that involves citizens, not just special interests, in designing a government for the 21st century.

   We look to the governor for that leadership, but we also want to help him. Beginning today, and running through next Sunday, we will explore on the editorial pages of The Birmingham News the reasons why we need a new constitution and some of the benefits we expect to derive from reform. It is a discussion we hope will continue, and a discussion that many in this state want like to see the governor lead.

   We don't suggest that a new constitution would solve all of Alabama's problems. But a new constitution, properly drafted, would give this state a path toward those solutions. The Constitution of 1901 is a roadblock.

   We also are not suggesting change simply for the sake of change. A new constitution is not necessarily a better constitution, although almost anything would be better than what we have.

   Real reform would address the key weaknesses of the current document and allow the citizens of Alabama to make some choices about the kind of government they want.

   One important issue is taxing and spending. The current constitution limits flexibility and adequacy in those areas. Those limitations are expressed in an unfair tax system and strict earmarking that keeps the state from being able to spend its meager resources where they are needed most. We must strike a better balance between the protection of limits and the need to be flexible enough to serve the people of Alabama.

   Another key issue is the sharing of government power and responsibility. The present system puts all the power in Montgomery, tying the hands of local governments, especially at the county level. We need to decide how much home rule is appropriate, so the governments closest to the people can better serve the people.

   The old constitution is a document of exclusion, designed to disfranchise. We need a new declaration of rights that is consistent with our modern understanding of the relationship between citizens and their government.

   Building a climate in which change is possible will require courageous and committed leadership. We hope, with this series, to encourage and support such leadership.

(Tom Scarritt is editor of The News. His e-mail address is tscarritt@bhamnews.com.)

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Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 34
Montgomery, Alabama 36101-0034

E-mail: accr@constitutionalreform.org