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By Steve Reeves
November 25, 2001

   With Tuscaloosa County facing urban sprawl and runaway development in rural areas, leaders say they lack the tools to deal with the growth.

   Land use planning and zoning take an act of the state Legislature. Gaining home rule for Alabama counties is a goal of those pushing for a new state constitution.

   The county school system, racked by financial difficulties brought on in no small part by an inadequate and regressive tax structure that relies heavily on sales tax revenues, is feeling the strain of increasing enrollments.

   "Tuscaloosa County is rapidly becoming more urban than it ever has been," County Commissioner Mike Richardson said. "We need to have the ability to deal with all of those problems. When you have to do it legislatively, it becomes cumbersome."

Lack of home rule
 
   Tuscaloosa County, like almost all counties in Alabama, lacks the ability to make its own decisions about land-use regulations, zoning, taxation and many other issues dealt with by local governments in other states.

   The framers of the state’s 1901 constitution effectively stripped most counties of much of their decision-making ability by centralizing power in Montgomery.

   There are no rural land-use regulations and practically no long-range planning because the county commission doesn’t have the authority.

   For Alabama counties, adopting or changing laws and ordinances usually involves a lengthy legislative
process.

   "Home rule is something Tuscaloosa County desperately needs," Richardson said. "In Montgomery, 100
miles away from Tuscaloosa, people are far removed from the reality of the situation as we know it."

   A poll conducted for The New York Times Regional Newspapers in Alabama earlier this month showed 64 percent of registered Alabama voters favor home rule. Fifty-nine percent of voters in the Tuscaloosa area were in favor of home rule. The statewide poll has a five percent margin of error.

   Tuscaloosa County does not have home rule under the 1901 state constitution. The lengthy and clumsy document, considered outdated by many, prohibits county governments from having any powers not granted by the state.

   The result is that county governments often are frustrated in their efforts to address issues like school
funding shortfalls or even adopt routine regulations like dog leash laws or laws prohibiting prostitution.

   Last November, Alabama voters were asked to vote on dozens of amendments to the constitution. Most of them were local amendments, such as setting voting hours in Marshall County and allowing Winston County residents to tax themselves for county road maintenance.

   For years, Tuscaloosa commissioners have been trying to get an ordinance protecting Lake Tuscaloosa, the primary source of drinking water in the county, from pollution. A bill sponsored by state Rep. Tim Parker, R-Tuscaloosa, that would provide strict guidelines for development around the lake goes to the Legislature for approval in January.

   "What’s going on with Lake Tuscaloosa embodies the futility of where we are," said Bailey Thomson, a journalism professor at the University of Alabama and a founding member of Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform. "We are the only state in the Southeast that doesn’t give counties planning authority."

   When Mercedes built its plant in Vance, one of the things the automaker requested was zoning laws regulating the growth around its facility, a move the commissioners couldn’t make themselves. The Legislature has yet to take action.

   "We’re talking about the most basic, common sense thing most people would agree with," said Sonny
Brasfield, assistant director of the Alabama Association of County Commissions. "The county commission in Tuscaloosa has only a little more power than the student government at the University of Alabama."

Stymied school funds

   Brasfield said the lack of home rule can be a hindrance to attracting new industries because there is no way to quickly address the needs or concerns a company may have before locating in the area.

   "The growth in Tuscaloosa County is amazing considering that the commission has no authority," he said. "We’re backward in Alabama, and we’re proudly backward."

   For proponents of scrapping Alabama’s constitution, perhaps no other issue validates their view more than local school funding. School systems are heavily dependent on sales tax revenues. Property taxes in Alabama, unlike other states, are controlled largely by the Legislature and contribute little to school coffers. Alabama has the lowest property taxes in the nation and is far behind its neighbors in assessing property taxes for education.

   In the recent poll, voters statewide overwhelmingly chose education as the most important issue facing Alabama. While 12 percent identified terrorism and another 12 percent chose the economy, 46 percent said education was top on their list.
 
   Earlier this year, the Tuscaloosa County School System had only $18,000 in its reserve fund after being forced to slash $2.2 million from its staff and instructional budget.

   Tuscaloosa County schools, because the state has had to cut its education budget by $266 million, have been facing one financial crisis after another this year. Commissioners had to pass a special tax on motor vehicles and industrial equipment in April to generate additional revenue for city and county schools.

   Gov. Don Siegelman has called a special legislative session for Dec. 4 to address ways of avoiding another round of proration this school year.

   Even people who are wary of the possible negatives of constitutional and tax reform acknowledge that school systems in Alabama are lagging behind those in other states, a fact that could further hamper industrial recruitment.

   "I’ve never had a client say anything about our constitution," said Dara Longgrear, executive director of
the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority. "I have had them say our school system here is not producing the quality graduates they want."

   School funding may be the one issue that rallies people behind constitutional reform, said Carl Ferguson, a dean in the UA business school.

   "The most important thing to a parent is the education of their child," Ferguson said. "But they have no control over that in Alabama."

   A constitution that allows county governments the power to raise revenues for schools is key to the state’s future, he said.

   "The whole foundation of this country is based on public education," Ferguson said. "We are all dependent on the quality of our public schools."

   Momentum is building for adopting a new state constitution, though the method is up for debate.

   Among the options are holding a convention, rewriting the document one article at a time or a special legislative session to rewrite the entire constitution.

   Parker said he’s in favor of a convention, the option that currently has the most support.

   "I’m now of the opinion that the Legislature is not capable of doing this themselves," Parker said. "The ox is in the ditch right now."

   The ACCR also has put its support behind a state convention. The Alabama Policy Institute favors reforming the constitution through amendments addressing issues like taxes and home rule.

   Parker said a new constitution doesn’t necessarily mean higher taxes. Most other state constitutions, as well as the U.S. version, have separate tax codes.

   "There’s a built-in fear that somehow it’s going to be easier to raise taxes," he said. "But if we had a new constitution, we’d have better tools to deal with the funding crises we’re facing, like the one in our public schools."

Reach Steve Reeves at steve.reeves@tuscaloosanews.com or 345-0505, Ext. 343.

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