By Phillip Rawls
The Associated Press
4/22/03 2:19PM
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Democratic Senate leaders are trying to pass
two-fifths of the recommendations from the Republican governor's constitution
commission: providing limited home rule and recompiling the constitution
to remove racist language.
But the rest of the commission's recommendations -- unearmarking
tax revenue, giving line-item veto power to the governor, and requiring
the Legislature to pass new taxes by a super majority -- are not on
the Democratic leaders' priority list for the current legislative
session.
Sen. Jeff Enfinger, D-Huntsville, Senate floor leader
and chairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Constitutional
Reform, said limited home rule and recompilation "have the most
support in the Legislature."
Gov. Bob Riley's Citizens' Constitution Commission gave
him five recommendations on March 27. Riley's press secretary, David
Azbell, said Tuesday the governor is pleased that the Senate leadership
is supporting some of the recommendations and he looks forward to
working with them.
Azbell said Riley will see that all five of his commission's
recommendations are introduced in the current legislative session
for consideration.
Senate President Pro Tem Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, said
Senate leaders "are looking at those things that are doable"
in the current legislative session, but constitutional revision will
be a multiyear project.
Barron and Enfinger were joined at a news conference
Tuesday with Sen. Gary Tanner, D-Theodore, who is handling the home
rule legislation, and Sen. Wendell Mitchell, D-Luverne, who is sponsoring
the recompilation legislation.
The limited home rule legislation would have to pass
both the Legislature and the Alabama public in a statewide referendum
before it would take effect. If approved, then citizens in a county
could vote to give their county commissions three different types
of power: control over health, safety and economic development issues,
including issuing bonds for industrial projects; the ability to add
new taxes, provided they are approved by voters in a referendum; and
land use and zoning authority.
"I think it's going to be very popular with all
the Senate," said Tanner, a former Mobile County commissioner.
Buddy Sharpless, executive director of the Association
of County Commissions of Alabama, said he expects the limited home
rule legislation to be enacted first in more populous counties where
lots of building is going on outside the city limits.
"It will not be adopted in every county," he
said.
The recompilation legislation has two parts. One is a
bill that would reorganize the constitution to move amendments from
the end to their appropriate spots within the constitution and then
delete old language that has been replaced by the amendments. This
would make the nation's longest state constitution shorter and better
organized, Mitchell said.
The other part is a constitutional amendment that would
remove all racist language that has been struck down by the courts,
including poll taxes and the mandate for segregated schools. The constitutional
amendment would also replace outdated and insensitive words in the
constitution that deal with mental retardation, Mitchell said.
The Alabama House has already passed recompilation legislation
and sent it to the Senate. The House has not yet considered a constitutional
amendment to delete racist and insensitive language.
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