In Our Opinion
December 31, 2001
The big Christmas present for the state this year
was a last minute deal by the Legislature to come up with $160 million
to plug an education funding shortfall. So rejoice, of course, in
the fact that we won't have to put up with another round of proration,
a move that would have more or less gutted what was left of our public
educational system.
But don't let the merriment get out of control, because
this isn't the fair funding scheme the governor had
advocated, it is one that will pile yet another burden on the people
of Alabama rather than on the big corporations that should be paying
their fair share anyway.
That's right, the governor had identified tens of millions
of dollars in revenue that were not being paid because of loopholes
in our corporate income tax code. He simply wanted the legislature
to close those holes and use the money to fill the shortfall.
But the good lawmakers would have none of that. Many
of them did, of course, have their arms twisted out of their sockets
by the special interests, namely the business community. So they can't
really be blamed, wimps that they are. The Business Council of Alabama
did agree to some changes that accounted for a portion of the new
revenue. The rest, good people of Alabama, will come from you in the
form of new phone tax revenues.
If anything, however, this whole situation strengthens
the governor's position as he heads into the campaign season. Oddly
enough the defeat of his plan allows him to say that he fought for
and won the battle to save Alabama's public schools from proration
and to lay blame for the added tax burden at the feet of the Legislature
and big business.
Talk about your win-win situations for the governor.
But the real victory here will be a permanent fix to
our education funding problems. Proration, after all has raised its
ugly head more times over the last 50 years then anyone wishes to
recount. So instead of simply using the 2001 fight against proration
as a campaign weapon the governor needs to work toward real, permanent
reform.
That means not just supporting, but championing constitutional
and tax reform. We fully expect him to be
front-and-center of the issue in the lead-up to the campaign because
public opinion is swinging that way and a grass roots movement is
gaining momentum.
But we need his leadership now in shaping the public
debate over the issue. We need him to take on the
opposition and to help educate the public about why we need these
changes and how they will take place.
Winning that battle will be the real measure of this
governor's success, not simply plugging yet another budget shortfall.
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