By Anthony McCartney
April 22, 2003
MONTGOMERY - Several powerful state senators today endorsed a constitutional
amendment to give counties "limited home rule" and pledged
to try to send it to voters later this year.
The senators also threw their weight behind a pair of
measures that would recompile the state's 1901 constitution and remove
its racist and offensive language. Those bills would strike references
to Jim Crow laws and statutes such as the poll tax and school segregation
that have been struck down by the courts.
The senators - including President Pro Tem Lowell Barron,
D-Fyffe, and floor leader Jeff Enfinger, D-Huntsville - held a press
conference this morning to announce their support of the bills.
The bills tackle two of the five proposals of Gov. Bob
Riley's Alabama Citizens' Constitution Commission, which recommended
limited home rule and recompilation measures last month. The commission
also recommended amending the constitution to limit earmarking, which
reserves more than 90 percent of state taxes for specific uses; create
a supermajority vote in the Legislature to pass any taxes, and grant
the governor line-item budget veto authority.
Enfinger said time constraints in the Legislature kept
other bills from being introduced this session. But by tackling home
rule issues, he said, lawmakers would address a major problem with
the 102-year-old constitution.
"Home rule represents a large part of the inherent
problems in our constitution," Enfinger said.
Under the proposal, voters would have to approve the
home rule provisions in a statewide referendum. Then each county would
have to decide whether to enact the provisions, which can be taken
in steps.
The first step would grant counties the authority to
issue bonds and take other measures to help their economic development.
Step two would give counties the right to call for referendums on
local taxes, which then would have to be approved by a majority of
voters. The third step would grant counties more power to zone property
and do land-use planning.
The provisions would affect only residents in unincorporated
areas.
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