In our opinion
February 11, 2003
Although not every problem Alabama faces has been
created by our archaic constitution (pass-through pork has a life
of its own), no one can deny that we are facing a constitutional crisis
in this state. Which is why we are following closely the progress
of the Citizen’s Commission of Constitutional Reform that the
governor appointed.
Now divided into subgroups, they are working on the difficult
questions.
As expected, there have been some stumbling blocks. Those
who hoped the document could be editorially shortened by just taking
out the parts that have been repealed or declared unconstitutional
were told the task will result in such a substantial change in the
document that it will have to be submitted to the people for approval.
While this will slow down the process, it also will give more popular
credibility to the end product, so we are not upset with the ruling.
Meanwhile, the "supermajority" subcommittee
has been looking at ways to require greater than a simple legislative
majority to raise taxes. "We don’t want to make it impossible
to raise taxes; we just want to make it a higher hurdle," said
Tom Young, former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby who heads
that committee.
We hope the committee will study this proposal in light
of past legislation. Our problem has more often been not raising taxes
when more revenue was needed than passing taxes by a narrow vote.
The biggest task may have fallen to the subcommittee
on Home Rule, chaired by Bailey Thomson of the University of Alabama
and Sallie Creel of Birmingham. It is looking at ways to expand the
authority of county government over zoning, economic development,
police and fire protection, etc. Moving this much authority out from
under legislative control is opposed in some quarters, but the lack
of local government power goes to the very heart of the problem with
our constitution.
Obviously the task these public-minded citizens have
assumed is a difficult one. We wish them well.
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