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Brian Kennedy
September 25, 2002

   By most accounts, the state is currently on the fringe of what might be the most difficult financial crisis it has faced in decades. Not a promising thought, unless you are reform advocate, many of whom believe the state has reached its "day of reckoning."

   Dr. Bailey Thomson, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Alabama, told members of the Jasper Kiwanis Club Monday that "conditions are such that Alabamians may be ready to embrace long-postponed reforms."

   Dr. Thomson, who traveled to states throughout the region in 1998 on assignment with the Mobile Register to see how neighboring states addressed critical issues, is well-versed on topics of dire importance in the state's efforts to move forward.

   Chief among the professor's list of items needing to be addressed are constitutional reform, tax reform and education funding. "We cannot postpone for tomorrow, as our leaders so often have done, what must be confronted today. That is, not if we want to be competitive and if we treat our people fairly," Dr. Thomson said.

   According to Dr. Thomson and like-minded advocates of reform, the state is poised to take some risks for the sake of a higher payback in the future.

   Alabama Gov.-elect Bob Riley will inherit what many knowledgeable insiders predict will be a dire financial condition that could explode within the next budget cycle, Dr. Thomson said.

   "The next governor must either attack the source of the financial problem - which is the tax system itself - or attempt to buy time through another stopgap," he said. "Once past the money crisis, the next governor must devote his energies to making Alabama's economy more competitive, as the state continues to hemorrhage old-fashioned jobs in textiles and heavy industry," Dr. Thomson added. "The automobile industry, as attractive as it may be for governors to court with incentives, will not save Alabama from international competition.

   Only a well-educated and productive workforce can keep us in the running." Pointing out that Alabama is the only state in the Southeast that still denies planning authority to its counties, Dr. Thomson suggested that the establishment of "home rule" and a newly revised state constitution could free state legislators from spending up to half of their working time on local matters.

   "As formidable as these challenges may be, there is some good news for the next governor and for the rest of us as well. For several years, discontent at the grass roots has begun to support what we have rarely enjoyed in Alabama. I'm speaking of groups that will work for the public good rather than their private gain," Dr. Thomson said. "As a result, we now have growing public interest in constitutional reform and the related issues of tax reform, educational improvement, children's welfare, alleviation of poverty and environmental protection."

   While many of the problems facing the state have been magnified by the recent downturn in the economy, Dr. Thomson believes strong and effective leadership could present Alabama with new levels of opportunity.
"Despite Mr. Riley's relative inexperience in governing Alabama and the resistance he may face from some of his supporters, he has a chance to move our state forward," he said. "Bob Riley looks like a New South governor. He talks like a New South governor. And he has a program that, on its face at least, seems intent on making Alabama a New South state.

   "It is incumbent upon us, as citizens, to encourage our governor-elect to be bold and to take some political risks to achieve the vision he embraces," he added. "If he will be this kind of courageous leader, then perhaps one day all of us will look back upon this time and remember not the disputed election of 2002, but the beginning of a new Alabama."

COPYRIGHT ® 2002 Daily Mountain Eagle, a division of Cleveland Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved.

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