http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/114034491794550.xml&coll=2 – After spending $50 million on child welfare tracking system, DHR decides to scrap effort and start over.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/114034424894550.xml&coll=2 – Retirememt Systems officials say pension increases may hurt systems.

http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/114034457894550.xml&coll=2 – Editorial blasts legislators for what is termed “a special (interest) vote” in rejecting bill for constitutional convention.

http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/114034458494550.xml&coll=2 – Editorial calls for legislature to take action on bill strengthening child restraint requirements.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/114034472594580.xml&coll=3 – New Mobile Register/USA poll shows gap between Baxley and Siegelman narrowing.

http://www.al.com/opinion/mobileregister/qhillyer.ssf?/base/opinion/1140189304294670.xml&coll=3 – Mobile Register’s Quinn Hillyer’s final commentary reflects on the good, bad of Alabama.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060219/casino.shtml  - Alabama GOP chairman working for Mississippi lobbying firm that represents casino interests.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060219/NEWS02/602190329/1009 - The Capitol Insider, the Montgomery Advertiser’s weekly roundup from the Statehouse.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060219/OPINION01/602190302/1012/OPINION - Editorial criticizes House members for rejecting Governor’s tax reform plan, and projects that in this political year, no plan will survive.

http://www.dothaneagle.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=DEA%2FMGArticle%2FDEA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137834199501&path=!frontpage – Moore speaks of God and country while campaigning.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060219/NEWS/602190334/1012/editorial1 - “Alabama Exposure,” Dana Beyerle’s weekly political column for the NYTimes regional papers.  Note that the first entry in this week’s column include a report that a poll by the Capitol Survey Research Center shows 72% of those polled support the bill calling for a constitutional convention.

http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060219/NEWS/602190334/1015/OPINIONS01 - Editorial blasts House committee members for vote on constitutional convention measure, urges Senate to act favorably on proposal.

FROM TODAY’S ANNISTON STAR:

EDITORIALS

And then there was light, or was there?

In our opinion
02-19-2006

Excuse us while we revisit the constitutional issue, again. A constitutional convention — an idea dealt a setback in the state House this week with the help of Reps. Randy Wood and Steve Hurst — is a grassroots attempt to bring transparency to state government. It is not, as many of the Legislature-controlling special interests will have you believe, a sinister attempt to extract God and implant taxes. The not-so-brave Reps. Wood and Hurst have additional concerns, including the influence of the special interests themselves. Sure the special interests will try to grab control of a convention, if our lawmakers find the courage to let the people vote on it. But they will be doing that in the daylight, out where people can see what they are up to. Right now, those same special interests have lobbyists creeping through the back halls of the Senate and the House, prowling around, whispering this and that and spreading money all the while. You, the citizen, the voter, the taxpayer, the good people of Alabama, you never see that, you never get a glimpse of what a corrosive impact that has on the day to day workings and long-term policies of this state. So here’s your choice: you can get behind a constitutional convention, vote to send a sunshine legislator to that convention from your legislative district, where a new document will be written in the wide open, or you can choose to stay in darkness, letting the same interests that have kept a stranglehold on this state for generations continue to keep us back. Send your state senator and your state representative, even Reps. Hurst and Wood, a message. Tell them you want the sun to shine, tell them you are tired of the darkness in Montgomery.

FROM TODAY’S DAILY MOUNTAIN EAGLE (Jasper)

Guin, Riley agree on tax cuts

But they disagree on method needed

DAN WHISENHUNT
The Daily Mountain Eagle
Published February 18, 2006 9:20 PM CST

House Majority Leader Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, said he does not have a problem with a tax cut, as long as it is not the one originally proposed by Gov. Bob Riley.

On Thursday the house voted down Riley’s plan to reduce income taxes by $28 million next year from state income taxes. Critics charged it would give more tax breaks to the wealthy, a critique which Riley spokesman Jeff Emerson refutes.

"The majority of the tax cut the governor proposed goes to the people who need it them most," Emerson said. "He believes all people should get a tax cut, but under the governor’s proposal millionaire would get a tax cut of $50. The average tax payer would get $375. The attack that it’s a rich persons tax cut doesn’t hold any water."

Guin said the tax structure in Alabama was unfair and that the governor’s tax cut would take money needed for education.

"He wants to give a tax cut to wealthy people in this state and we have an inequitable tax structure. We have the poorest in the state paying as much as ten percent of their income in state taxes and we have the wealthiest paying as little as two or three percent.

"The middle class, which most of us are in here in Walker County, are in that over-taxed category," he said.

The best way to bring equity to the system, Guin suggested was to not give the wealthy a tax cut at all. But his major objection comes with Riley’s proposal to take the money out of the education trust fund.

"His proposal grows every year for five years and after five years it will be taking nearly $250 million dollars out of schools, and that’s wrong," Guin said, adding, "In Alabama we’re ranked somewhere around 48th or 49th in spending per student.

The Birmingham News reported that when fully phased in, the collections from income tax would be reduced by $233 million a year.

Guin also criticized the governor for what he called election year politics.

"Before, Riley told us we needed a $1.2 billion dollar tax increase for education yet today, in an election year, he’s saying we can give up $250 million in education money. What he’s proposing is election year politics at the cost of the school children in the state," he said.

Guin said he would favor a tax cut that does not subtract money from education.