By Matthew Korade
Star Capital Correspondent
January 13, 2002
MONTGOMERY — With the winds of re-election blowing from the Appalachians
to the wire grass, political observers predict this last regular session
of the legislative quadrennium will be mild, with a low chance of
precipitating controversial issues.
Of course, politics, like the weather, can surprise you.
Constitutional reform
No surprises here: Reforming the 1901 Alabama Constitution
has come up again - an issue that’s been around longer than most
of the legislators.
Both Gov. Don Siegelman and Lt. Gov. Steve Windom broached
the subject with much fanfare on the first day of the 2002 regular
session, but the political rivals took different approaches to the
issue.
Siegelman beat home his belief in the need for total
revision in his State of the State address Tuesday night. In the speech,
he asked the legislators to call a convention to rewrite the constitution.
He also wants the Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment this
session allowing county residents to vote on local taxes for schools
without first having to ask the Legislature’s permission, as
is the current practice.
“If we ever want to fund our schools the way we
should and make our tax system fair, we have to rip the power out
of the hands of the special interests, move it out of Montgomery and
give it back to the people,”
Siegelman said.
After the speech, in which the governor used the
phrase “special interests” 17 times, many legislators doubted
whether a convention would fly this session because of the overriding
preoccupation with the upcoming elections and concerns over state
budgets. Most legislators say they would rather rewrite the constitution
themselves, slowly, article by article.
Windom, a candidate for nomination in the Republican
gubernatorial primary, said he supports calling a constitutional convention,
but not this session. The Mobile Republican outlined his two proposals
for constitutional reform at a news conference earlier Tuesday.
The first of Windom’s ideas seems similar to the
school-tax amendment that Siegelman proposed later that night. The
other was an amendment that would give counties the power to pass
limited local ordinances dealing with public nuisances, noise and
police and fire protection; it would not include the authority to
raise taxes or zone land.
Calhoun County’s commissioners said Windom’s
plan is a first, baby step toward decentralizing the Legislature’s
power over local governments. But it doesn’t go far enough in
granting them the autonomy they need to do their jobs, they said.
All agreed on the need for planning and zoning and some form of taxing
authority. As a novel compromise on the more prickly issue, Commissioner
Lee Fite suggested the commission and local delegation share the power
to tax, voting together on revenue increases.
Another candidate for the Republican nomination in the
gubernatorial primary, U.S. Rep. Bob Riley, issued a news release
after Siegelman’s speech criticizing the timeliness and motives
of the governor’s proposals.
“The list of issues offered by Siegelman are in
every speech he gives and they seem to disappear after the last applause
line,” said Riley, R-Ashland. “The governor’s new positions
on high tech research and constitutional reform are too little too
late.”
Meanwhile, just hours before, the state’s House
Democratic majority had been the first to talk about constitutional
reform in a news conference to announce its top legislative priorities
for this session.
Priority No. 1 - above a bill requiring students to say the Pledge
of Allegiance in class and another allowing signs bearing the words
“In God We Trust” to be hung in schools - was proposed legislation
to clean up the language of the first six constitutional articles,
something the Legislature has failed to accomplish for years. The
six rewritten articles don’t deal with taxation, and include
the declaration of rights, state boundaries and military.
Tax reform
Like its relative constitutional reform, tax reform
will probably be dead on arrival in this highly politicized session,
political observers say.
But that hasn’t stopped some major religious groups
from lending their weight to it.
Leaders of Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist and Presbyterian
groups gathered Wednesday at the Capitol to reaffirm the need for
tax reform in Alabama.
“Our taxation policy in Alabama places an undue
burden on the poorest of our citizens,” said Rev. Henry Parsley,
Episcopal bishop of Alabama. “As people of faith, we must respond
by calling upon our elected leaders to take appropriate action to
make taxation in Alabama fairer and more just for all.”
The religious leaders did not endorse any particular
plan for changing the state’s tax code. But the Rev. Robert E.
Fannin, bishop of the Methodist Church’s North Alabama Conference,
said one change that needs to be made is removing the sales tax on
food.
“It’s beyond understanding why we tax food,
which is so critical to life itself,” Fannin said.
Budgets
The dominant concern in Montgomery, as always, will
be rewriting the state budgets, legislators say.
This year the process may take a little longer than usual - the budgets
are already behind schedule.
Siegelman submitted spending plans to the Legislature
on the opening day of the 2002 session, as required by law, but he
doesn’t expect the Legislature to adopt them. They show all state
agencies getting the same amount of money they received last year
and were only submitted to comply with the law, the governor’s
press secretary, Carrie Kurlander, said.
The governor plans to introduce a new plan in a couple
of weeks when better projections are available for anticipated revenue,
Mrs. Kurlander said.
Rep. Richard Lindsey, chairman of the House Ways and
Means Education Budget Committee, said the sluggish economy has made
it difficult to predict how much revenue will be available, and he
expects more problems balancing this year’s budgets.
“We’re facing the same problems we faced last
year,” said Lindsey, D-Centre. “The budget is going to be
conservative, but it is going to meet the needs of the classroom.”
Legislative leaders expect budget committees to spend
the first two months working on the budgets and have them ready in
early March. The regular session could last through April, but many
lawmakers hope to call an early end to it and go home to campaign
before the June 4 primary.
Congressional districts
After a contentious and unsuccessful special session
on the issue late last summer, the Legislature again could try its
hand at redrawing Alabama’s seven congressional districts to
reflect population shifts since 1990.
A panel of three federal judges has given the legislators
until Jan. 28 to redraw the map. After that, the judges will go to
the drawing board themselves.
The matter is especially important in the 3rd Congressional
District, which includes Calhoun County. U.S. Rep. Bob Riley is vacating
the district to run for governor, and two local legislators, Reps.
Mike Rogers, R-Saks, and Gerald Willis, D-Piedmont, are interested
in Riley’s seat.
The Legislature didn’t overlook the 3rd District
vacancy. Both houses became divided in the summer redistricting session
as Democrats bickered with Republicans over the district’s constituency.
Eventually, a faction of House Democrats subverted the wishes of the
Senate and congressional delegation, who wanted it to remain almost
evenly split between the two parties.
State Senate districts
Also on Jan. 28, a Montgomery judge will rule on
the legality of the new state Senate districts, which the Legislature
redrew with the House map in separate redistricting session last summer.
Under the new Senate map, Calhoun County is divided into
two districts, with western Anniston, Hobson City and parts of Oxford
going into the district of Sen. Jim Preuitt, D-Talladega. The northern
and eastern parts of Anniston remaining with the rest of Calhoun County
in the district of Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston. Marsh’s district
also extends into St. Clair County, making the constituency more Republican
overall.
Two former Republican officials filed a lawsuit in Montgomery
Circuit Court last summer contending the districts vary enough in
population - by 12,360 people between largest and smallest - as to
violate the state constitution. In a hearing Thursday, the plaintiffs
maintained the districts should be redrawn to make them equal in size
or voters in the larger districts will have less input in elections
than voters in smaller districts.
But state attorneys argued that Alabama’s constitution
requires the Legislature to design “nearly equal” Senate
districts, a phrase Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick, a Democrat and
Siegelman appointee, kept returning to during the hearing. If Hardwick
rules against the state, the new Senate districts, which passed the
muster of the U.S. Justice Department, will have to be redrawn.
The constitution does not place any such restrictions
on House districts.
Death and driving
Of the 396 bills offered by the Legislature on the
first day of the session, two received action Wednesday.
House and Senate committees both passed identical bills to make Alabama
the 35th state with a graduated driver’s license.
The bills would restrict the hours that 16-year-olds
can drive and how many passengers they can carry.
“I honestly feel like this is the year for it to happen,”
said Rep. John Hawkins, R-Vestavia Hills, who has been trying to pass
the bill for several years.
Drivers would not be allowed more than four other passengers
unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. They also would
not be allowed to drive between midnight and 6 a.m. unless accompanied
by a parent or guardian or unless the trip were to or from such places
as school, work or houses of worship.
The House Judiciary Committee also approved a bill Wednesday
that would allow prisoners to choose execution by lethal injection
or electrocution. The condemned would have 30 days from receiving
their death sentences to designate their preference. If no choice
were made, the method would default to poisoning by lethal injection.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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