Posted on

The Alabama Constitution: Despite a Century of Updates, Traces of its Racist Past Linger

The constitution’s extensive amendments and inclusion of local government rules make Alabama’s constitution the country’s longest

By Keisha Stokes-Hough
Published: 

This essay is part of a 50-state series about the nation’s constitutions. We’ve asked an expert from each state to dive into their constitution, narrate its history, identify its quirks, and summarize its most essential components for our readers.

Alabama has been governed under seven constitutions. The 1901 constitution, which remained in effect longer than its five predecessors combined, was described by one law review article as “specifically designed to maintain the antebellum system of white supremacy.” After decades of critical scholarship and calls to improve it, organize it, and strip it of racist language, Alabama adopted a new constitution in 2022.

But that constitution was derived by and large from the 1901 document, meaning the vestiges of Alabama’s discriminatory foundations remain. Another result? It’s the nation’s longest and most unwieldy state constitution.

Advancement Toward Equality, Then Retractions

Of Alabama’s seven constitutions, only the latter three were ratified by the electorate. The first three — in 1819, 1861, and 1865 — became operable after adoption at the constitutional conventions that created them, reflecting Alabama’s emergence as a new state in 1819 and the evolving circumstances of the Civil War from 1861–1865.

The 1868 constitution, also known as the Reconstruction Constitution, is perhaps Alabama’s most progressive, “guaranteeing the rights of all citizens, protecting the property rights of married women, protecting black suffrage, broadening the voting rights of poor whites, and creating a bureau to promote industrial development,” Joshua Shiver wrote in the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Importantly, the 1868 constitution was the first to include an equal protection provision, which was retained in the subsequent 1875 constitution: “That all persons resident in this State, born in the United States, or naturalized, or who shall have legally declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, are hereby declared citizens of the State of Alabama, possessing equal civil and political rights and public privileges.”

The 1868 constitutional convention, which met in Montgomery, was comprised of 100 elected delegates, including 18 Black men. According to a history of the Alabama judicial system, while the 1868 constitution included several progressive reforms, the convention splintered along racial lines on questions of Black equality, voting down amendments that segregated public facilities but failing to make an affirmative statement on social equality for Black Americans. At the completion of the 1868 constitution, the history says, a third of “native white Republicans” were against it, and many discontented white Alabamans left early. At the same time, Black Americans were also unhappy with the result.

The 1868 constitution was the first in Alabama to go to voters for ratification. After white Democrats staged a widespread boycott of the ratification election, the constitution did not receive the two-thirds majority required by the Second Reconstruction Act. The U.S. Congress intervened, changing the two-thirds requirement to a simple majority, and making it retroactive so the constitution would be ratified. The Alabama legislature subsequently ratified the 14th Amendment, and the state was formally readmitted to the Union in July 1868.

When Democrats, who were then generally anti-reconstructionist, took control of both the governor’s mansion and the state legislature less than a decade later in 1874, Reconstruction was effectively over in Alabama. A new constitutional convention was held in 1875. Its 99 delegates included only 4 Black men. Many delegates were also Confederate veterans.

The 1875 constitution was ratified by the voters that November and is regarded as a triumph of agrarian interests over the forces of commerce. It abolished the office of lieutenant governor and the State Board of Education. Ultimately, the 1875 constitution “rolled back many of the advances of the [1868 constitution] by reducing the size of government, reducing funds for public education, and weakening the political power of African Americans,” Shiver wrote.

Nevertheless, to many white Alabamians, this retrenchment of civil rights for Black Americans did not go far enough. At the turn of the 20th century, conservative Democrats began to demand a new constitutional convention, in large part to disenfranchise Black Alabamians.

As former Alabama Supreme Court Justice J. Gorman Houston Jr. once noted, all prior Alabama constitutions were occasioned by historical events: statehood in 1819, secession in 1861, post-Civil War reorganization in 1865, Reconstruction in 1868, and its end in 1875. But the 1901 constitution was precipitated by a distinctly ulterior motive. “Historians regard the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 . . . as one not required by historical necessity, but promulgated to effectuate a purpose, to inaugurate a rigidly segregated society and to legalize inequality,” Houston wrote.

Black citizens were systematically excluded from that convention. The convention’s “primary purpose,” University of Alabama professor William Stewart wrote in 2001, was “‘purifying’ the suffrage; in other words, eliminating blacks and, many hoped, radical-minded white farmers who were greatly upsetting things as far as Alabama politics was concerned.”

Records of the constitutional convention show that its president, John B. Knox of Anniston, addressed the delegates, saying “the negro was the prominent factor” in the “issue” to be addressed by the convention. Pushing back against the policies of the Reconstruction era, he added: “It is within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to establish white supremacy in this State.”

The 1901 constitution, the Encyclopedia of Alabama says, perpetuated structural inequality by “concentrat[ing] power in the state legislature, decreas[ing] opportunities for home rule, and establish[ing] voter requirements that even many white men could not meet, reducing the political influence of the state’s many poor whites.” The voter disenfranchisement provisions included poll taxes, a lengthy residency requirement, and disqualification of those deemed “insane” or “idiots[,]” as well as persons convicted of various crimes. The 1901 document also criminalized paying another’s poll taxes or lending money for poll taxes as a form of bribery, punishable by a minimum of one to five years in prison.

In addition, it removed the explicit equal protection provision established in the 1868 constitution. The removal of this provision was premised by those who wanted that redaction on the understanding that the rights were covered by the federal 14th Amendment. The convention records also reiterated the position of some that Black citizens were unqualified to exercise the franchise. Said Knox: “There is a difference, it is claimed with great force, between the uneducated white man and the ignorant negro. There is in the white man an inherited capacity for government, which is wholly wanting in the negro.”

Having stripped Alabama’s local governments of home rule powers to manage their own affairs, the 1901 constitution instead entrusted most of the responsibility for regulating local matters to the state legislature — meaning the state legislature spends much of its session, even today, passing local legislation. “Cities, towns, counties do not govern themselves. We’re governed essentially by their legislative delegations. And to change any law, even to pay a probate judge or to establish a bingo game, you have to amend the 1901 constitution,” Wayne Flynt, a professor emeritus in Auburn University’s history department, said in 2009.

Following its adoption by statewide vote in November 1901, the constitution rapidly grew in length as local measures were added as amendments. By 2009, the Alabama Constitution had been amended more than 700 times and was 40 times longer than the U.S. Constitution.

It was in a 1914 address that Alabama Gov. Emmet O’Neal said, “No real or permanent progress is possible in Alabama until the present fundamental law is thoroughly revised and adapted to meet present conditions.” Nevertheless, the 1901 constitution remained in effect for more than a century.

In 2020, after decades of calls for change, voters approved a constitutional amendment that authorized the legislature to prepare a new version of the state constitution. Alabama voters ratified the revised and reorganized constitution on November 8, 2022. While the 2022 revision of the Alabama Constitution aimed to remove racist language, get rid of repealed provisions, and better organize the document, a press report described the 2022 constitution as “a pretty limited update, aimed mostly at modernizing some text and making it easier to read.” According to the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, even after passing the new constitution, Alabama remains “governed by the basic operating system established by the 1901 Constitution.”

Declaration of Rights

The Declaration of Rights is Article I of the Alabama Constitution. It “recognizes that individuals possess basic rights that cannot be taken from them by the majority acting through the legislative, executive, or judicial departments of government,” the supreme court justice Houston wrote.

Section 1 paraphrases the Declaration of Independence, pronouncing “that all men are equally free and independent; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Section 2 asserts that “all political power is inherent in the people.”

Several provisions of Alabama’s Declaration of Rights parallel principles established by the U.S. Constitution, including the right to free exercise of religion and the prohibition against establishing a state religion by law, the right to free speech and press liberty, the prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, the rights to a speedy criminal trial, the right to trial by jury, and the right to bear arms.

The Declaration of Rights provides “that excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishment inflicted,” and “that no person shall be imprisoned for debt.” Additionally, “the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended by the authorities of this state.”

There are provisions that differ from the federal Constitution as well. Alabama’s 2022 constitution incorporated the state religious freedom amendment into the Declaration of Rights, which describes its purpose as “to guarantee that the freedom of religion is not burdened by state and local law; and to provide a claim or defense to persons whose religious freedom is burdened by government.” The amendment empowers any “person whose religious freedom has been burdened” to seek “appropriate relief against a government.”

The Declaration of Rights also says the Ten Commandments can be displayed on state property and in public schools, though only “in a manner that complies with constitutional requirements,” including “being intermingled with historical or educational items, or both, in a larger display.”

Other Unique Characteristics

Alabama’s constitution is about four times as long as Texas’s — the next longest state constitution — and complex even in its updated form.

Despite the goal of the 2022 update to remove redundancies and struck provisions, the extraordinary length is due to the nearly 1,000 amendments added since 1901. Unlike other state constitutions, Alabama’s “is not a basic template and statement of principles,” the public affairs council said, but rather, “more closely resembles a law code, with almost 500 pages worth of amendments that relate to localities rather than to the state as a whole.”

The 2022 constitution sorts local provisions by county at the end of the document. Examples of local measures include a provision authorizing Shelby County to provide “litter, trash, and rubbish regulation,” a provision approving a special tax in Chambers County “for library purposes,” and a provision authorizing Chilton County’s control of dangerous dogs.

As part of its constitutional revision in 2022, Alabama joined Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont (whose voters approved similar language changes in that election) in amending provisions relating to slavery and involuntary servitude. Like the 13th Amendment, Alabama’s 1901 constitution “prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude, ‘except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.’” This “Punishment Clause” exception, originating in the U.S. Constitution and reproduced in state constitutions throughout the country, has been criticized for allowing states to target Black Americans with stiff legal punishments and for using the criminal justice system to recreate a type of slavery.

The Alabama Constitution now imposes an absolute ban, declaring that “no form of slavery shall exist in this state; and there shall not be any involuntary servitude.” This strengthening of constitutional prohibitions against slavery and involuntary servitude may create opportunities to challenge forced work programs in state prison labor systems.

Governance

The Alabama Constitution requires the state government be divided into three “distinct” branches — legislative, executive, and judicial.

The legislature consists of a senate and a house of representatives, made up of no more than 35 senators and 105 house members, with those numbers being its current composition. If additional counties are created, however, each new county is entitled to one representative. Each senator represents a district of approximately 137,000 Alabamians.

The constitution says the “executive department” consists of a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state auditor, secretary of state, state treasurer, superintendent of education, commissioner of agriculture and industries, and a sheriff for each county. They are elected positions.

For the judicial branch, the constitution provides there be a supreme court; a court of criminal appeals; a court of civil appeals; a trial court of general jurisdiction, known as the circuit court; a trial court of limited jurisdiction, known as the district court; a probate court; and municipal courts.

“All judges shall be elected by vote of the electors within the territorial jurisdiction of their respective courts,” the constitution says.

Amendments

As mentioned, the Alabama Constitution has been amended hundreds of times to resolve developing state and local issues.

The amendment process is itself somewhat cumbersome, including requirements that the proposed amendment be read on three days in the legislative house proposing it, then approval by three-fifths of that house, then to a public election on a specified day. A simple majority is required for it to pass.

Judicial Interpretation and Limiting Equal Protection

Ex parte Melof, decided in 1999, is one of the most important cases interpreting the Alabama Constitution. In upholding the state’s retirement benefit taxation classifications against an equal protection challenge, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the Alabama Constitution does not provide an equal protection guarantee, as the express equal protection provision was removed during drafting of the 1901 constitution.

The state supreme court had recognized the existence of a state guarantee of equal protection in a line of cases going back decades. However, the Melof court reviewed the proceedings of the 1901 convention and the development of its own case law and concluded that the finding of a state equal protection guarantee was mistakenly premised on “an erroneous unofficial annotation” that was included in a printing of the Alabama Code in 1940 and in subsequent editions. This annotation was then relied upon and quoted by the Alabama Supreme Court in its decisions.

The dissenters in Melof and other critics of the decision have pointed to other provisions of the Alabama Constitution which may be interpreted to convey an equal protection guarantee, such as a provision in the Declaration of Rights “that all men are equally free and independent.” But Houston, who authored Melof, has explained that the Alabama Supreme Court cannot simply overlook the racist designs of the framers of the 1901 constitution, and instead advocated constitutional reform: “We cannot change history. Alabama in 1901 was Alabama in 1901. However, Alabama will be remiss if it enters too far into the new century with a constitution having as its main purpose to establish a segregated society and to legalize inequality.”

The express equal protection provision omitted by the 1901 convention remains absent from Alabama’s constitution.

Ex parte James, in 2002, is another important case of constitutional interpretation. In James, the Alabama Supreme Court brought a swift end to what was known for years in Alabama as the “Equity Funding Case,” which alleged the state was infringing on Alabama schoolchildren’s rights by failing to provide an adequate and equitable public education as required by the 1901 Alabama Constitution.

In 1992, a lengthy trial was held, revealing the pitiable state of public education in Alabama due to the lack of adequate funding. The trial court ruled that Amendment 111 of the state constitution, enacted in 1956 “in an attempt to evade compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Brown v. Board of Education,” violates federal equal protection guarantees.

But the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the judiciary was constitutionally prohibited from providing a remedy for the problem of inadequate school funding. “The pronouncement of a specific remedy ‘from the bench’ would necessarily represent an exercise of the power of that branch of government charged by the people of the State of Alabama with the sole duty to administer state funds to public schools: the Alabama Legislature.” Accordingly, the Alabama Supreme Court dismissed the litigation. Portions of Amendment 111 were eventually removed from the state constitution by public vote.

• • •

By removing explicitly racist language and reorganizing the lengthy text, the 2022 revision to the state constitution represents an important and necessary step forward for Alabama. But as the current constitution is derived largely from the 1901 constitution, advocates believe additional reform will be necessary to fully remove its discriminatory foundations, empower local governments to meet the needs of their constituents, and improve the provision of public education.

Keisha Stokes-Hough is a deputy director of legal management at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A correction was made on July 16, 2025: An earlier version of this article stated that Amendment 111 was removed from the state constitution in its entirety. However, only portions were removed.

Keisha Stokes-Hough is a deputy director of legal management at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Suggested Citation: Keisha Stokes-Hough, The Alabama Constitution: Despite a Century of Updates, Traces of its Racist Past Linger, Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ Cᴏᴜʀᴛ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (Jul. 8, 2025), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/alabama-constitution-despite-century-updates-traces-its-racist-past

Posted on

PARCA report highlights inequities in Alabama’s tax system

Thomas Spencer of PARCA highlights Alabama’s inequitable tax system with a reliance on regressive sales taxes

Published on April 8, 2025 at 8:00 am CDT

The Alabama Constitution of 2022 represents a significant step forward in addressing some of the state’s historical inequities, mainly by removing racist and unconstitutional provisions from the 1901 Constitution. Thomas Spencer, senior research associate for the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, says that the new version of the Constitution still leaves the state’s tax system essentially unchanged, perpetuating many of its predecessor’s problems, particularly in how taxes are allocated, a PARCA report finds.

One of the most significant issues highlighted is the inequity of Alabama’s tax system. Alabama remains one of the lowest tax-collecting states in the U.S. The state and local governments consistently collect less per capita in taxes than almost all other states. In 2023, Alabama ranked 49th in per capita tax collections, just ahead of Tennessee, a neighboring state with similarly low tax rates.

This low tax collection has impacted public services. Due to the state’s limited tax base, Alabama has far less revenue to spend on crucial public services like education, healthcare, public safety and the justice system.

“If you compare our state and local spending to other states, we’re in the 40s. We spend less than most other states and we’d probably be farther down if the federal government didn’t send us a lot of supplemental money because we are disproportionately poor,” said Spencer.

In many states, legislators and local governments have the power to adjust taxes as needed to respond to changing conditions. In Alabama, however, the state’s constitution imposes strict procedural requirements for increasing property taxes. For a property tax increase to occur, the local government must first approve it, then it must be approved by the local legislative delegation, and finally, the increase must be ratified through a public referendum.

As a result, Alabama’s local governments are forced to rely more heavily on sales taxes, which are inherently regressive. The state has some of the highest combined state and local sales tax rates in the country, with a weighted average of 9.29 percent. While the state made a small step toward equity by reducing the sales tax on food in 2023, with another decrease working through the legislature now, the change is limited and has not addressed the broader issues of regressive taxation.

Moreover, Alabama’s system of earmarks, which directs revenue to specific uses, further limits the flexibility of the state to address its most pressing needs. The state earmarks more of its revenue than any other state. For example, gas taxes are restricted to funding road construction, which prevents the state from using those funds to support other transportation needs, such as public transit. 

“We don’t enjoy that because of a constitutional provision written by, you know, the road builders and ratified by the people years and years ago with probably not a lot of thought as to what the world would look like later on,” said Spencer.

In terms of education, Alabama spends more on higher education than most states. Over half of the revenue for higher education comes from student tuition, not tax revenue. This reliance on tuition makes college less affordable, particularly for low-income families. Alabama’s in-state tuition is the second highest in the Southeastern U.S., and the state provides less financial aid than its neighbors, making higher education a greater financial burden for families with low incomes.

“We’ve had pretty phenomenal growth in those categories, in supporting education, higher education, but when the economy goes south, which there are apparently some red lights going on right now, that is the first to fall,” said Spencer.

The state’s tax system is also hindered by an imbalance in revenue sources. A fair and efficient tax system is generally based on a balanced approach that relies on a mix of property, sales and income taxes. However, Alabama’s system is overly reliant on sales taxes, which are less stable and more regressive than property taxes or income taxes. Because property taxes are difficult to raise, and income taxes are less developed in the state, the tax burden falls most heavily on lower-income residents.

“I think the point in our free market society is we want people to be able to sustain themselves, and if they’re out earning a living, they should be able to keep that money and support themselves and support their families and build a better life,” said Spencer.

Posted on

Third Report from Joint Effort with PARCA – The Alabama Constitution’s Impact on Taxes and Spending

Previously, ACCR announced a joint effort with the Public Affairs Council of Alabama (PARCA) to create a series of reports on how Alabama’s Constitution impacts the lives of its citizens. We are excited to announce the publication of the third of these reports, The Alabama Constitution’s Impact on Taxes and Spending.  This report can be found at: https://parcalabama.org/the-alabama-constitutions-impact-on-taxes-and-spending/

Posted on

Brian Lyman: The case for a new Alabama constitution

January 27, 2025

There’s a strange limbo in the weeks before the Alabama Legislature returns to work.

You know what legislators should focus on. Living in Alabama makes that obvious. You can guess where their focus will be based on what they say in the weeks leading up to the gavel drop.

But honestly? No one knows anything until the first day of the session. In fact, the drift of the session may not be clear for weeks afterward.

So we wait.

And not just fools like me who willingly enter that mold-filled building on South Union Street. Local governments sometimes have to wait up to nine months for legislators to make major decisions about their operations. School district officials cross their fingers as the state education budget goes through the legislative process, hoping nothing gets cut.

Every decision must go through Montgomery. And many of those go through unelected lobbyists and special interest groups first, who get an unofficial veto over the public business.

It’s a real irony. A state government that howls at the slightest federal intervention keeps a tight lock on Alabama’s local governments and school districts.

County and city governments only have the power Goat Hill allows them to have. Property tax caps make state funding critical to most public schools, especially those in rural districts. That gives legislators lots of control over areas that either lack the power to levy local taxes or lack the business development that would make that practical.

That’s all thanks to the 1901 state constitution, an authoritarian document that violated the U.S. Constitution; stole the vote from Black Alabamians and snatched it from poor white Alabamians a few years after it went into effect.

The overt racism is no longer there, perhaps. But the 1901 constitution’s vision of a small clique of elites running the state free from public approval is largely how Alabama government still works.

So even though a statewide lottery would be popular (not with me, but I’m only one of 5.1 million), you don’t get to vote on it.

Most Alabamians seem OK with Medicaid expansion. But not our leaders, who knit their brows and sigh at the cost as they shovel billions of dollars into an ever-more expensive prison.

If polls are correct, a majority of people living here don’t like Alabama’s effective abortion ban. But the Legislature, which only listens to hardcore Republican voters, will keep it in place.

You know what would address these problems?

A new state constitution.

Yes, yes, I know. The powerful interests that dominate Alabama government aren’t going to surrender their privileges without a fight. Electing people to a constitutional convention could be messy. There’s no guarantee that what would emerge from a convention would be better than what we have. And even a decent new governing document would face a blitz of attacks before voters got a chance to weigh in on it.

The challenges are many.

But think about what we could gain.

The pieties about property tax caps in Montgomery belie the fact that they serve wealthy landowners, particularly those who make their money cutting down trees. Low property taxes are good for them. They’re terrible for rural communities with small tax bases and limited commercial development. Their schools struggle to operate with low or nonexistent local revenue.

So give those local governments and the people who elect them the power to run things. The ability to decide what education should look like in their neighborhoods.

Maybe those governments will raise taxes. Maybe voters will punish them for that.

Or maybe they’ll be happy to see their children’s teachers get the resources they need to educate their students. In both cases, it will be living, breathing Alabamians making those choices. Not dead planters from the Edwardian era.

But let’s think bigger.

A 1956 constitutional amendment passed amid white hysteria over Brown v. Board of Education said there is no right to a public education in our state. That language needs to go, if only to force our government to fund schools.

Our Legislature has spent the last few years doing everything to make voting hard. Outlawing drop boxes. Banning private money to support election operations (without allocating funding to make up for that). Criminalizing forms of absentee ballot assistance.

A new constitution should include an affirmative right to vote, similar to what scholar Rick Hasen has suggested, one that prevents legislators from making the exercise of your constitutional rights an intimidating ordeal.

There’s more. Make it harder for the Legislature to override a gubernatorial veto. Abolish the anti-democratic budget isolation amendment, which effectively requires bills to get 60% of the vote (not a simple majority) to pass. Turn the state judiciary from elections to appointments.

Will this make Alabama a utopia? Of course not. Systemic racism and poverty can only be addressed by political will, whatever framework of government you have.

But empowering people to address those problems will help us develop solutions.

And best of all, it won’t make us wait on the whims of a part-time Legislature that all too often takes its cues from a small group of elites.

Posted on

Second Report from Joint Effort with PARCA – The Government Closest to the People?

Previously, ACCR announced a joint effort with the Public Affairs Council of Alabama (PARCA) to create a series of reports on how Alabama’s Constitution impacts the lives of its citizens. We are excited to announce the publication of the second of these reports, The Government Closest to the People? The Statehouse,  The Courthouse, and City Hall.  This report can be found at: https://parcalabama.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/The-Government-Closest-to-the-People.pdfthe-government-closest-to-the-people/

Posted on

First Report from Joint Effort with PARCA – How Alabama Democracy Compares

Previously, ACCR announced a joint effort with the Public Affairs Council of Alabama (PARCA) to create a series of reports on how Alabama’s Constitution impacts the lives of its citizens. We are excited to announce the publication of the first of these reports, How Alabama Democracy Compares. This report can be found at How Alabama Democracy Compares – Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (parcalabama.org)

News organizations have taken note of the report and have written articles about it. Here are two of them:

From AL.com: Where Alabama rates when it comes to ‘democracy,’ according to a new report – al.com

From Alabama Political Reporter: https://www.alreporter.com/2024/06/11/parca-alabamas-democracy-progresses-but-challenges-remain/

 

Here is a summary of this report:

Introduction The report examines the development of democratic practices in Alabama and compares them with other states. It highlights areas for potential reform to enhance voter participation and competitiveness in elections.

Historical Context

  • Alabama’s 1819 Constitution initially embraced democratic participation by granting voting rights to white males without property or religious requirements.
  • The 1901 Constitution aimed to disfranchise Black people and poor White people, centralizing power in the legislature.

Current State of Democracy in Alabama

  • Alabama ranks low in voter participation, with only 37% turnout in the 2022 general elections.
  • Public opinion indicates a lack of trust in government responsiveness, with over 50% of respondents feeling their voices are not heard in Montgomery.

High Cost of Voting

  • Alabama imposes high costs on voting compared to other states, ranking 46th in ease of voting.
  • Barriers include no early in-person voting, restrictive absentee voting requirements, and a lack of automatic voter registration.

Voter Registration

  • Alabama’s voter registration rate is below the national average.
  • The state has improved registration accessibility but does not offer automatic registration like 25 other states.

Making Voting Easier

  • Alabama does not allow early in-person voting, unlike 46 other states.
  • It also has restrictive absentee voting rules, requiring specific excuses and witness signatures.

Competitive Elections

  • Alabama’s electoral competitiveness is low due to gerrymandering and straight-ticket voting.
  • The dominance of one party and racial polarization contribute to low voter turnout in general elections.

Encouraging Participation

  • Other states have adopted measures like independent redistricting commissions, top-two primaries, and ranked-choice voting to enhance competitiveness and participation.
  • Alabama lacks direct democracy mechanisms like initiatives and referendums, limiting citizen involvement in legislative changes.

Conclusion

  • Alabama’s new constitution removed discriminatory provisions but still describes voting as a “privilege” rather than a right.
  • For a more vibrant democracy, Alabama could adopt practices from other states to ease voting, increase competitiveness, and allow for greater citizen participation in government reforms.
Posted on

Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) Press Release on Feb. 19, 2024

ACCR is excited to announce the launch of a joint project with the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.  See the details below and please consider helping us fund this important research by donating on our website under the Contributions tab.

The Alabama Constitution Reformed: Is There Still Work to Do?

In 2022, Alabama adopted a “new” constitution, an improved and reorganized version of the Alabama Constitution of 1901. The vote was the culmination of decades of advocacy and was rightly celebrated.

The new Constitution removed the racist and unconstitutional provisions that were relics of the White Supremacist 1901 Constitution.

It reorganized the document, moving relevant statewide amendments into their proper place in the main body of the Constitution, removing duplicative and repealed provisions, and organizing local constitutional amendments by county to the end of the document.

But is the work finished?

Is Alabama free from the shackles of the anti-democratic and pre-modern Constitution of 1901? Or are fundamental flaws still embedded in our Constitutional DNA?

Despite the new Constitution, we remain governed by the basic operating system established by the 1901 Constitution. And that operating system was recognized as obsolete and an obstacle almost as soon as it was adopted.

Alabama Governor Emmet O’Neal, in a 1914 address, observed, “No real or permanent progress is possible in Alabama until the present fundamental law is thoroughly revised and adapted to meet present conditions.”

Have those revisions been made? In this election year, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) will examine that question.

PARCA was founded to provide objective, non-ideological research to citizens and leaders, supporting the improvement of state and local governments. PARCA research is intended to help governments function efficiently and effectively in hopes that those governments provide equal treatment and opportunity to the people of Alabama.

As the Constitution is fundamental to the functioning of state and local governments, it has been a central focus of PARCA’s work.

Over the next year, PARCA will issue a series of reports examining Alabama’s current constitutional framework, identifying remaining obstacles to a modern constitution and possible paths forward in areas such as education, economy, healthcare, democracy, liberty & justice, finances, and related areas.

The project is supported, in part, by the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform (ACCR). Both ACCR and PARCA are nonpartisan organizations, and our members and supporters are Republicans, Democrats, and independents. Former Governor Albert Brewer and former Samford University President Thomas Corts, both deceased, were founding leaders in both organizations.

The mission of ACCR is to educate and advocate for an Alabama Constitution that protects and enhances life for all Alabama citizens. To that end, ACCR has two branches:

  1. A foundation that focuses on educating the public about the Alabama Constitution and underlying issues that affect our citizens.
  2. A nonprofit advocacy organization that works to improve the Constitution.

The foundation is providing support for PARCA’s re-examination of the Alabama Constitution. ACCR’s advocacy organization will use the research to recalibrate its ongoing work on Constitutional reform.

Alabama’s Constitution of 2022 is still, by far, the longest state constitution in the United States, three times as long as the next longest state constitution. Though now better organized, it is still complex and contradictory.

It is not a basic template and statement of principles, which should be the ideal. It more closely resembles a law code, with almost 500 pages worth of amendments that relate to localities rather than to the state as a whole.

Alabama voters have finally removed the most noxious provisions of the Constitution of 1901, which was explicitly formulated to strip the political rights of Black Alabamians, but which also disenfranchised poor whites. Gone are provisions that mandated segregated schools. Deleted are provisions allowing for involuntary servitude for those convicted of crimes. The Constitution now recognizes that females have a right to vote.

But other aspects of the Constitution remain unchanged. Power is still concentrated in the hands of the state Legislature in Montgomery. Should that power be more dispersed? Should citizens be able to initiate change and call for referendums, rights available to citizens in other states? Should more decisions be made by local communities rather than by legislators in Montgomery?

Alabama still collects less in state and local taxes than virtually any other state through a constitutionally-embedded tax system that falls disproportionately on poor Alabamians. At the same time, low taxes, particularly on property, reflect voters’ preferences. Are there changes voters would support that could increase adequacy and fairness?

Thanks to the Constitution, Alabama still earmarks more revenue than any other state. That limits legislators’ ability to shift revenue toward pressing priorities. On the other hand, voters like earmarks and don’t necessarily trust lawmakers. Is there a way to change the culture of distrust with changes that increase both flexibility and accountability?

Does the Constitution inhibit economic development and mass transportation? Does it promote public safety and justice? Does it adequately promote the general welfare, health, and education?

Alabama’s Constitution should reflect our values. It should promote engagement in our democracy and free and fair elections. It should provide for equality of opportunity and equal treatment under the law. With the adoption of the Constitution of 2022, the people of the state took a step forward, removing obvious anti-democratic and discriminatory provisions left from a darker past.

But does the Constitution reflect the needs and aspirations of Alabamians today? Does it provide us with the outlines of a modern, efficient, effective, and responsive government? Is there still a need for Constitutional reform? We will explore those questions in the months to come.

Posted on

Letter to ACCR Membership

Passage of the 2022 Alabama Constitution was a major victory for the state, reorganizing the document and removing racist language. But we all know there is more that must be done to improve this flawed document for the benefit of all Alabamians.

Toward this end, the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform (ACCR) has engaged the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) to examine the many ways our constitution impacts the well-being of our citizens. We are planning a series of research briefs that examine the real-world implication of the constitution in areas such as education, the economy, healthcare, democracy, liberty and justice, and the consequences of our tax structure.

We see how our constitution affects us daily in the difficulty it places on local governments, those closest to the citizens, when they simply need to pass laws to govern their communities.  PARCA’s research will define how our constitution impacts the daily lives of Alabama citizens.

ACCR needs an objective, well-researched examination of the constitution in order to proceed with its mission to educate and advocate for an Alabama Constitution that protects and enhances the lives for all Alabama citizens.

We need your help to fund the research with PARCA.

Please consider donating to this effort at https://www.constitutionalreform.org. To make a donation online, select Contributions from the menu and make a donation to the tax deductible ACCR Foundation, or mail a check payable to the

ACCR Foundation

P. O. Box 10746
Birmingham, AL 35202

Sincerely,

ACCR Chair Kristi Thomson

 

Posted on

ACCR Receives Charles L. Ray, Jr. Memorial Social Justice Award

On September 8, 2023 Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform (ACCR) received the Charles L. Ray, Jr., Memorial Social Justice Award from Interfaith Mission Service of Huntsville.  ACCR was one of five recipients of the award.  Receiving the award on behalf of ACCR was Kristi Thomson, ACCR Board President.

Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform (ACCR) is the force behind constitutional reform in Alabama. A non-profit, grassroots, public interest group dedicated to helping Alabamians draft a new state constitution. Founded in 2000 by journalist and educator Bailey Thomson and his wife Kristi Thomson, many across the state participated and helped in the formation including lawyer Tom Carruthers, Sid McAnnally, the Honorable Jack Edwards, Dr. Thomas Corts, Gov. Albert Brewer, Brunson White, Odessa Woolfolk, Judge Gorman Houston, Professor Wayne Flynt, and others.

Mr. Thomson’s efforts along with those of Gov. Albert Brewer and with the help of the late Dr. Thomas Corts, President of Samford University, resulted in a movement for reform that began in Tuscaloosa with a rally attended by hundreds. ACCR Foundation, and ACCR Inc., grew out of this rally in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 7, 2000.  ACCR’s goal is a state constitution that unites, rather than divides Alabama’s people and creates a civic atmosphere in which politics can function for the benefit of all citizens, rather than for a few powerful interests. As part of this effort, ACCR supported the effort to recompile Alabama’s constitution removing racist language and reformatting to make the document more coherent. Voters ratified the reformatted Alabama Constitution in 2022.
The five recipients of Charles L. Ray, Jr., Memorial Social Justice Awards from IMS.  Kristi Thomson of ACCR is on the left.
Kristi Thomson, ACCR President, receives the award on behalf of the ACCR organization.
Posted on

The Fee Trap: Why Alabama’s local governments can’t shake fines and charges – The state’s tax caps mean governments have to turn to charges to keep running. It may not be sustainable.

BY:  – SEPTEMBER 12, 2023 
     
People in line to pay tag fees.Residents wait in line at the Talladega County motor vehicle registration office on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 in Talladega, Ala. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)

When Alabama needs to pay for services, it turns to fees and general charges, or fines and fees in the criminal justice system.

Legislators passed almost 60 bills during this spring’s legislative session directing how local governments may raise revenues or spend money. Many generated money for counties, from fundraising events and lodging taxes to vehicle registration and court filing fees. Most passed as local bills, which generally go through the Alabama Legislature with little notice or debate.

The legislation is necessary because the state’s constitution gives local governments little autonomy and few other avenues for raising revenues.

The Fee Trap

How fines, fees and charges cost Alabamians

By one estimate, local Alabama governments generate more than twice as much revenue from fees and charges as they do from property taxes. Fees are often key to keeping public services, like sheriff’s offices, ambulance services and fire rescue teams running.

But funding government through fines and fees can wreak havoc on the budgets of local governments who are forced to come up with creative ways to generate money in a piecemeal fashion. Administrative costs can lower revenues from fees. In some cases, the money can be difficult to collect, and doesn’t cover the full cost of services governments need to provide.

And the fees fall heaviest on those least able to pay.

“Because of our upside-down tax system, a lot of our government agencies, and especially the ones that have a lot of interaction with the public, like the Department of Corrections and the court systems, disproportionately interact with low-income folks,” said Mike Nicholson, senior policy analyst for Alabama Arise. “When we have these structures that are underpinned by fee systems, what they are really doing is asking low-income folks to support these systems that, a lot of times, oppress them. They are almost paying for their own oppression system in a lot of cases.”

An Alabama Reflector analysis of more than 300 bills introduced in the 2023 legislative session found that:

  • Counties received the majority of fees, with 32 addressing those governments.
  • Sheriffs had 13 bills for funding. Limestone, for example, used a booking fee, a fingerprinting fee, a fee for background checks, and fees to serve documents within Alabama and out of state. To fund its sheriff’s office, Lamar County imposed two fees related to serving papers; a fee charged for feeding inmates and another for fingerprinting.
  • County commissions also received funding, though many said they were simply the conduit for transferring the money to different departments to use the funding.
  • Legislators authorized lodging taxes for three counties, Elmore, Henry and Tallapoosa, allowing them to charge between 4% and 15.5% on top of the rate that people pay for hotels and other accommodations.
  • Several approved fees will fall hard on people in the criminal justice system. The city of Northport received permission to enact a $100 warrant recall fee, charged for avoiding jail time for failure to appear in court. Cullman County received permission to impose court costs for criminal cases ranging from $5-$100 to fund a school resource officer. Coffee and Pike counties got permission to set fees for diversion programs — meant to allow people to avoid criminal charges — to between $150 to $2,100, depending on the crime. The city of Tuscaloosa received permission to redistribute the money it collects from pretrial diversion to other programs.
  • Two bills allow sheriffs in two counties, Winston and Autauga, to host fundraising events to generate revenues.
  • None of the new fees will offset the entire cost of the services they fund.

“The way it is in Alabama, our Constitution makes it so difficult to raise revenue that this array of local bills is, at its core, fundamental evidence of how difficult it is to raise revenue in Alabama,” said Sonny Brasfield, the executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama (ACCA). “What you have in every county is trying to find some pathway to generate revenue that is politically tolerable in that county.”

A heavy reliance on fees

A "Please Exit Here" sign stands on display next to a mirror.
 Residents renew their motor vehicle registrations at the Talladega County motor vehicle registration office on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 in Talladega, Ala. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector) 

Governments throughout the country rely on charges to raise revenue. The practice gained steam in the 1980s, said Aravind Boddupalli, a research associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, who works on projects related to federal, state and local tax and budget issues. It was partly a response to some states’ limits on taxing power.

According to the Urban Institute, property taxes represent about 30% of the share of total local general revenues. That is, by far, the largest amount in terms of taxes. Only 5% of local government revenue in the U.S. is from general sales taxes, while another 2% is from individual income taxes.

All major sources of revenue have increased for state and local governments, but charges have increased the most on a percentage basis, increasing by 337%.

“What I broadly see is that states in the South rely less so on income taxes as a share of their revenue total than states in the Northeast for example, or even states in the West or Midwest,” Boddupalli said.

In New Hampshire for example, its share of property taxes is slightly more than $3,000 per capita for 2021. In Massachusetts, the property tax per person was about $2,800 per person in 2021. New Hampshire gets about $379 per person when it comes to fees. Massachusetts charges each person about $493 in fees.

In Alabama, the state received $567 per person in property taxes and $1,346 in fees per individual in 2021, according to data compiled by the Urban Institute. For the United States as a whole, property taxes are $1,837 while general fees charged per person was $982.

Even in the South, Alabama’s dependence on fees stands out. Louisiana, for example, collects about $970 per person in property taxes, and almost the same amount, $981 per person, in fees. In Mississippi, the state gets about $1,200 per person in property taxes and the same amount in fees. Only North Carolina ($1,459 per person) collects more in fees.

“Alabama stands out a little in this regard,” Boddupalli said. “Alabama relies more than the U.S. combined on charges as share of its general revenue. So more of Alabama’s budget relies on these non-tax revenue sources than other states.”

Some paid their registration fee begrudgingly.

 Shannon Barker talks outside the Talladega County motor vehicle registration office after registering a vehicle on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 in Talladega, Ala. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)“This was almost $200, so you do the math on that,” said Shannon Barker, who lives in Lincoln and renewed his vehicle registration at the end of August. “It is something that has to be done. You don’t have any choice. You can do a lot more with $200 than buying this. All you are doing is paying for a sticker.”

Barker didn’t realize the fee for registering his vehicle had increased, and that the money would go to the sheriff’s office.

“They got to get it somehow,” Barker said.

One reason for Alabama’s reliance on charges, as well as fines and fees, is the state’s constitution. Designed in 1901 to disenfranchise Black Alabamians and poor whites, it also tightened restrictive property tax caps even further.

“The Alabama Constitution of 1901 was drafted primarily by the most influential people, who were large landowners and large industries, who did not want to pay property taxes on large land holdings,” said Thomas Spencer, senior research associate with the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.

The constitution also gives state government an almost exclusive right to tax. There is little home rule. Counties cannot enact their own tax rules without permission from state representatives and senators.

Income tax collections are limited by a 1933 amendment that set the top tax rate and threshold for a married couple at 5% of $6,000. While a progressive measure for its time, inflation gradually made it regressive. According to PARCA, in 2020 Alabama was 16th from the bottom in terms of state income tax collections in 2020. Of those that collected the least, seven states did not collect any income taxes.

Local governments can collect sales taxes, and most do. PARCA estimates Alabama collects $1,834 per person in sales taxes annually for 2020, the puts 28th in terms of rankings when compared to other states. The top state, Hawaii, is the highest at $3,814 per person for 2020.

In Alabama, the state receives $567 per person in local property taxes and $1,346 in fees per individual, according to the Urban Institute. For the United States as a whole, local property taxes are $1,837 while fees charged per person is $982.

After exhausting most of the traditional taxing methods, municipalities and counties are forced to petition the state legislature for any funding possible to pay for their operations.

Fees are politically palatable. One justification is that fees and charges mainly affect people who use the service that saves everyone else from the burden.

“The reason that they do this is because, if not, they will have to fund it with a tax increase,” said Bob Wood, a professor of finance at the University of South Alabama. “And, of course, legislators don’t like tax increases because voters don’t like tax increases. It is a way around raising taxes. That is the bottom line. You never hear that.”

Peter Jones, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said this state has traditionally disliked broad-based tax systems. However, the public’s demand for services provided by the government has increased.

“In terms of user fees, we have always had to rely on user fees to be able to fund the government,” Jones said. “But they have really taken off as the government started providing more services in Alabama. “You think about how school systems have changed, how police forces have changed, all of the different types of services have really changed dramatically in the last 30 or 40 years in terms of what they are providing.”

Cities versus counties

Two signs in the hallway of a public building (white text on a brown background). The top says "Business License" and "Conservation License." The bottom says "Motor Vehicle Renewal and Registration" and "Titles."
 The Talladega County motor vehicle registration sign on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 in Talladega, Ala. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector) 

While all local governments rely on charges, fines and fees to some extent, counties are particularly dependent on them.

Cities in Alabama generally have more power to legislate than counties, in part because they form voluntarily. Property owners and citizens agree to be annexed into a city’s borders and to be subject to a city’s laws. That legal theory offers cities broader administrative powers in terms of raising revenues to fund its coffers.

Counties do not have such powers.

“Counties can only exercise the exact powers that the legislature has given them,” Brasfield said. “And the power to tax has been the one thing that the Legislature has been very, very stingy with over the years.”

The Alabama Constitution prohibits county governments from levying more than 5 mills of property taxes. If a county wants to increase property taxes above that limit, it requires an amendment to the Alabama Constitution, a process that involves going through the state legislature and approval by voters in an election.

In addition, constitutional amendments passed in the 1970s severely limited how much property could be assessed for tax purposes, further cutting property tax revenue. Homes and agricultural land are assessed at 10% of their appraised value. Businesses property is assessed at 20% of its appraised value and utilities at 30% of appraised value.

This makes it difficult to raise revenue in rural counties where the property is primarily farm, forest, and homes. In addition, the “Lid Bill” caps the total amount of property taxes that can be collected on a property to 1% of its appraised value in the case of homes and agricultural land, according to Spencer.

The only way to lift these caps would be amending the state constitution. A broad proposal to reform Alabama’s tax methods was defeated in 2003.

That leaves fees.

“If you are trying to secure revenue-raising ideas, you operate like a guy trying to fix a car,” Brasfield said. “You try to diagnose what change will allow the car to run. And you keep trying ideas until the car cranks.”

Favored methods

Vehicle registration and court filing fees were two of the most popular ways to raise money in the 2023 regular session. Vehicle registration fees were included in three bills; court filing fees went into three more.

Both target captive audiences.

“I don’t know if there is anywhere in this state that you can exist without a vehicle,” said Susan Pace Hamill, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and expert on the state’s tax system. “We don’t have a public transportation system that is worth speaking of. Outside of a few places, which aren’t huge compared to other places, Birmingham is not Atlanta for example, this is a very rural state. Vehicles are a reality.”

 The Talladega County motor vehicle registration office is housed inside the courthouse on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 in Talladega, Ala. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector) 

Court fees are inescapable for those in the criminal justice system, and many of those individuals are economically disadvantaged.

“If you have to go to court, you have to go to court,” Hamill said. “Not as many people have to go to court as have vehicles, but if you have to go, you have to go.”

HB 362, sponsored by Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, authorized the Coosa County Commission to levy a $15 fee on top of the existing county vehicle registration fee.

“It was to create an ambulance service for the county,” Robbins said. “Currently, residents do not have ambulatory service. And so, we are creating an ambulance service for the county, and the county commission requested, based on budgeting, what it would need to operate.”

The ambulance service will cost $300,000. Coosa County Administrator Amy Gilliland said the state mandated the service.

“We don’t have one. We only have two volunteer fire departments trying to cover this whole county,” Gilliland said. “Volunteers can’t always get all over the county. This is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

The full impact of that fee on residents is not clear. The county has a $25 base fee, but oftentimes registration fees amount to hundreds of dollars because of specific taxes that are levied depending on where they live.

Both parties are sensitive about the potential consequences it has for residents, and neither Robbins nor the county are willing to take the credit for the idea of using a vehicle registration fee to pay for the service.

“In working with our legislators, our representatives, and our senators, that was their suggestion,” Gilliland said. “And they said that would be the best for us to do.”

Robbins said the county commission analyzed the issue and came up with the idea for increasing vehicle registration fees to pay for the service.

“The county commission made the decision, because of the poverty in Coosa County, and some of the lack of health insurance and reimbursed routes, based upon the data they needed as a revenue source,” Robbins said. “This was their decision on how to come up with the most reliable revenue source in a rural county, which was motor vehicle registration.”

Impact and fairness

People lining up to go through a metal detector.
 Northport residents sand in line to enter the courtroom at the Northport Public Safety Building in Northport, Ala., on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (Will McLelland for Alabama Reflector) 

All governments, whether it be at federal, state or local level, must spend some money to collect the money they are owed.

“For those broad-based taxes, it tends to be proportional so that the more money you are spending to collect tends to reflect getting more money back,” Jones said. “With user fees, those are not set at a rate but at a price, and so you are collecting $32.55 per hunting license and if the cost of collecting that money goes up, you are getting fewer dollars for the provision of the public good.”

Fees, or charges, can be effective and pragmatic in some instances.

“The person using it, or the person benefiting from whatever it is, is the one actually paying for it,” Wood said. “That is what the legislators and the other politicians use to justify them.”

Jones said fees preventing access without payment, like tolls on public roadways or park entrance costs, tend to be the most efficient.

Among the least efficient are fines and fees.

“Fines and fees associated with the criminal justice system are often the least efficient in that they are the hardest to collect,” Jones said. “They are different for a couple of reasons. Obviously, people who pay fines, fees and forfeitures, those are not voluntary transactions. You are not buying a postage stamp.”

LaWanda Bush, 42 years old, was cited for speeding in the city of Northport. She had to go to the city’s municipal court to take care of the situation. The actual fine for speeding is between $20 or $40 depending on how fast over the posted limit a person is driving. But fees tack on another $162. For Bush, this meant she had to pay more than $200.

“They set up a payment plan,” she said.

Then there is the social justice cost.

“Technically, they are regressive taxes,” Jones said of fees. “They take up more of a person’s income.”

Many local governments use a local tax system that collects a greater share of revenues from those who make the least, according to a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy published in 2018. The report states the lowest 20% of income earners face a local and state tax rate that is at least 50% more than the top one percent of households.

Using fees to pay for government disproportionately negatively affects those on the lower end of the income spectrum because they pay a greater share of their income to pay the fee than Alabama residents who are wealthier.

“The only way the state is going to truly be able to have public policy that approaches some level of reasonableness that will not only be more fair to the most vulnerable, but also help perpetuate more economic growth,” Hamill said. “All of these things that we have been talking about do not help the state economically grow. If you don’t believe me, look at where we economically stand compared to other states.”

Practical?

The Talladega County Courthouse is two stories tall, with a cupola on top. It has two white decorated pillars framing the doorway.
 The Talladega County Courthouse houses the motor vehicle registration office on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 in Talladega, Ala. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector) 

And it’s not clear that fees can handle the rising costs of services.

“I think you will see more of this going forward as the cost of law enforcement has increased,” Brasfield said. “There are plenty of counties where law enforcement, and operation of the jail, is more than half of the county general fund.”

Broad-based taxes are generally more flexible, allowing them to be directed to a host of programs and services. Relying on fees can make it difficult to govern. Revenues from income like camp fees can be volatile. If, for some reason, fewer households visit a camp site, then the fees will decline accordingly. And fees often go to specific purposes, making local governments less nimble. A camp fee may be limited to camp maintenance.

“It does constrain the government in terms of what it can provide and the quality in which they can provide it,” Jones said.

Brasfield also said these mechanisms are not sustainable in the long run and are a poor way for subsidizing the cost of operating the government.

“Every county is different,” Brasfield said. “Is this the best way to fund the operation of the government? I would say no, it is not.”

How we analyzed the bills

Analyzing the local government legislation that passed took weeks and began by reviewing the records the Alabama Reflector had compiled as bills moved through the legislature. Every week during the session, the Reflector published a summary of the legislation that both the House and Senate considered. The Reflector then used Alison, the state’s legislative website, to search for bills using different keywords related to taxation, fines, and fees.

Any legislation that collected any revenue or could be an additional expenditure was considered for review. Some dealt directly with generating revenues through local legislation through vehicle registration fees or dues related to filing documents with the court or serving papers.

Others were less direct and more distantly related, such as technical revisions that were made to a revenue source, or legislation with the potential for affecting expenses, such as increasing the number of days that the board of registrars meets, or consolidating voting centers to reduce cost.

Those bills were then compiled into a spreadsheet that outlined different features of the bills, from the bill number identifying the specific legislation and its sponsor, to the taxing authority and the agency receiving the funding. Specifics of the legislation were also included, such as the fee structure, its purpose and where the legislation ended during the legislative process.

At the end of the search, the Reflector aggregated almost 300 bills meeting those criteria. Of those, the Reflector focused on those that passed during the 2023 regular legislative session, and those bills that, in some fashion, affected the public by generating revenues or cost measures.

Legislation was then filtered even further, concentrating on those bills that generated fees at the state, county, or municipal level. In the end, the Reflector was left with more than 60 pieces of legislation to consider for its analysis.