A state’s constitution should
be a broadly framed document that sets the general boundaries of government.
The legislative, executive and judicial agencies of the state government
should be responsible for the detail work.
But those responsible for Alabama's 1901 Constitution,
the one we’re still grappling with, tried to create a lock and
key job. It attends to so many minute points of governing that it
has stifled the ability of the Legislature or local governments to
adapt to changing needs without amending the constitution.
“Indeed, the argument can be made that the constitution
was inadequate to meet contemporary needs almost as soon as it was
put into effect,” wrote William H. Stewart Jr. in “The Alabama
Constitutional Commission.” The book details the process and
the reports issued by a panel initiated in 1969 by then-Gov. Albert
Brewer to study the need for a new constitution. The commission met
over a three-year period. The members documented the great need for
a constitutional rewrite.
In 1973, as a result of the commisssion’s work,
Alabama voters adopted a new judicial article - a move hailed by many
as a start toward the adoption of a new constitution. It proved to
be a false start. No rewrite came, and the state continued to deal
with its antiquated controlling document by the cumbersome process
of amendments.
When Brewer said in 1968 he would suggest a study toward
revising the 1901 constitution, there were 270 amendments to the document.
The Birmingham News called it “more tail than dog,” according
to Stewart’s book.
By the mid-1970s, there were 338 amendments, and 219
of them dealt with local issues - things that affected voters of one
county or city yet had to be voted on first by the Legislature, then
by all the voters of the state.
The latest count is 661 ratified amendments. While there
is no analysis of how many deal with decisions that would be better
made by voters in the affected locales, some are striking in their
limited scope.
Amendment 497, for example, addresses “prohibition
of overgrowth of weeds and storage and accumulation of certain junk,
motor vehicles and litter in Jefferson County.”
Why on earth should voters statewide - or state legislators
- vote on whether Jefferson County can enforce a clean up of its own
back yards?
Bills calling for a modern rewrite of the constitution
failed in the last legislative session, one that found lawmakers dealing
with the beavers of Fayette County.
The constitution required Fayette County officials to
call upon the Legislature to repeal a 1982 law establishing a $10
bounty on trapped beavers.
The issue - which would be been better left between the
beavers and the Fayette County Commission - was one of 217 local bills
lawmakers considered in the session. Of 812 acts in the regular session,
there were 298 resolutions and 35 constitutional amendments. Of the
remaining 479 acts, 45 percent were purely local.
Almost half the work done by the people elected to govern
our state is aimed at handling the government of counties and cities
- something we're paying other local elected officials to do.
Rewriting or revising the constitution could put responsibility
for running local government finally where it belongs - in local hands.
Next: It's Hard to Tell Which
Parts of State's Constitution are Still Valid
Reprinted with Permission from The Gadsden Times.
