Editorial: State Constitution suits lawmakers just fine
Dothan Eagle
2/25/10

There are many in Alabama whose faith in the legislative process is such that they firmly believe the state would be better governed by 140 lawmakers chosen at random from a stack of telephone books.

There are also times when such sarcasm begins to sound ... well ... reasonable.

This week is one of those times.

On Tuesday, the Alabama House killed yet another bill to let voters decide whether to call a constitutional convention to rewrite Alabama’s 109-year-old constitution.

Opponents say the convention would be monopolized by special interests and lead to tax increases and legalized gambling.

They’re either woefully disengaged or they think the voters are idiots. If they noticed the circus in front of the state house, where bingo opponents and supporters squared off in a yelling match, egged on by Gov. Bob Riley, they might have realized that there is already legalized gambling in Alabama, authorized by the legislature itself.

As far as special interests go, some would argue that powerful lobbyists monopolize the state’s legislative branch.

Rewriting the Alabama Constitution without overhauling the inequitable tax structure would be doing the job halfway. If some want to characterize that as raising taxes, so be it.

A review of the shortcomings of the 1901 Constitution would run at least as long as the document itself, which has been amended more than 800 times.

It’s simply arrogance that leads lawmakers to believe that the legislature is better equipped to draft the guiding legal document of our state than those who would be tapped for a constitutional convention.

Or, as has been the case for the last decade or more, not draft a new document.

The people of Alabama deserve the opportunity to be heard on the question of a constitutional convention. If the existing constitution allowed initiative and referendum, legislative approval would be moot.

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