| Home | Resources | News/Media | Events | Get Involved | Contribute | About Us | Archives | Students |
On the path to reform: Effort to rewrite 1901 Constitution a practical response to problem
The Anniston Star Editorial BoardSeptember 26, 2011
For some time, Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform has lobbied for some action, any action, to bring the state’s complex, cumbersome Constitution under control. The debate over how to accomplish this tells us much about the divisions and dynamics of Alabama politics.
On one hand are those who wanted a popularly elected constitutional convention to do the job. This was how the 1901 Constitution was created in the first place.
Opponents of this plan claimed an election would lead to special interests taking over the convention and, thus, writing the new constitution.
That’s a fundamental distrust of democracy revealed by this opposition. But it should be noted that it was not so much fear that special interests would dominate the convention. Instead, it was fear by some special interests that interests other than their own would prevail.
For example, ALFA and the Alabama Education Association, which are usually found in opposing camps, agreed that a convention was not the best way to go. Each feared the other might be able to control it.
That gets us to the first fundamental point about constitutional reform that we must understand. The state Constitution protects a wide range of special interests — albeit some more than others — so it stands to reason that special interests from agriculture to education would be wary of changes they could not control.
Those changes would be in the state’s antiquated, inadequate and regressive system of raising revenue.
Propertied interests do not want changes in the way the state taxes property. Education interests do not want changes in the way revenue is divided up, with education getting a big piece of the small pie.
Rather than allow a convention that they might not control to rewrite the Constitution, the special interests decided that if reform had to come, it had best come through a process they could control.
Enter the state Legislature and the 16-member Constitutional Revision (not reform) Commission.
And, to make sure the commission does not tamper with what is really wrong with the Constitution, tax reform is off the table. So, why bother? Because there is more wrong with the Constitution than taxes.
Although business groups, like other special interests, opposed a constitutional convention, they also understood that matters such as local control and decentralization needed to be addressed. So they threw their support behind the commission plan that is in place today. Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, proposed the necessary legislation and got it passed.
Marsh is on the commission, as is former Gov. Albert Brewer, who as its chairman gives the group credibility with constitutional reformers.
Despite the limitations placed on it, the Constitutional Revision Commission is a step in the right direction. It is a practical response to the political realities of Alabama. It is a beginning.
We hope it isn’t the end.
Copyright 2011 Anniston Star. All rights reserved.
© annistonstar.com 2011