http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1155720095212580.xml&coll=2 – Alabama ranked 45^th on student ACT scores.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1155720856212580.xml&coll=2 – Democrats delay hearing on challenge to House District 54 election.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1155721042212580.xml&coll=2 – Christian Coalition responds to Rep. Alvin Holmes (D-Montgomery), saying that they will not reply to his queries as he does not respond to their surveys.

http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-23/115568097034340.xml&storylist=alabamanews – Alabama House and Senate Democrats announce new leadership coalition and new “covenant” with voters to ban PAC-to-PAC transfers, end sales tax on groceries, end annual property appraisals.

http://www.al.com/opinion/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1155719885212070.xml&coll=3 – Editorial calls for disclosure of all spending by lobbyists on elected officials.

http://www.al.com/opinion/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1155720045212070.xml&coll=3 – Editorial demands disclosure of purposes for which PSC Commissioners used political contributions.

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060816/NEWS/608160335/1137/NEWS – Counties still waiting to receive reimbursement from Secretary of State for voting machine purchases required by HAVA.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060816/OPINION01/608160315/1012/OPINION – Editorial call on Christian Coalition to respond to questions raised by Rep. Holmes (D-Montgomery) and disclose funding sources.

http://www.politicalparlor.net/sanders-senate-sketches/senate-sketches-1002/ – Hank Sanders’ Senate Sketches #1002.

FROM THE DAILY MOUNTAIN EAGLE:

Guin: End to state sales tax on food on agenda

ED HOWELL
The Daily Mountain Eagle
Published August 15, 2006 11:20 PM CDT

House Majority Leader Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, said Tuesday that Democratic legislators’ biggest agenda item next year will be the elimination of the state sales tax on food — which he feels will probably be extended to restaurant purchases.

Guin commented on the legislative agenda introduced by party leaders on Tuesday at press conferences around the state by a group calling itself the Alabama Legislative Democratic Leadership Council. Guin said he is co-chairing the group.

“The legislation we proposed in the plan will be implemented in the next session of the Legislature,” Guin said.

The Legislature meets again early next year, after the Nov. 7 general election will determine who the governor, lieutenant governor and members of the Legislature will be. Guin faces no Republican opposition this fall.

The political campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lucy Baxley has been brief, as has lieutenant governor candidate Jim Folsom Jr., who was in town Tuesday night. Folsom said Tuesday night he supported the agenda, including the sales tax and a plan to eliminate annual reappraisals for property tax.

Guin said as it is a legislative agenda, he did not know how Baxley feels about the issues in the agenda.

Working under several broad areas, tax reform will call for annual property tax increases by returning property reappraisals to a four-year cycle, he said. Guin said the proposal would stop Gov. Bob Riley’s executive order which is creating annual property tax appraisals, which is set to increase tax revenue in the state. Riley has stated in the past he is only enforcing state law by issuing the order.

Democrats will oppose tax increases without referendums and make further reductions in the state income tax on families and individuals earning less than the federal poverty level
 
They would also create tax incentives to reduce dependency on oil. Guin said that would mainly be done by creating markets for switchgrass and ethanol.

“That’s actually one of my favorite parts of the package,” Guin said, noting he has been researching the issue through the summer and recently talked with the governor of Iowa over the success of a similar program in that state.

However, the big item in this area involved the sales tax.

“I think that’s the number one issue in our package. All of the items are important, but if we pass this one, it will bring immediate relief to my district,” Guin said, pointing out that it would take 4 cents off of 8 total cents charged in many cities such as Jasper.

He said legislators would have to work out the language to define what “food items” are under the proposal. As for restaurants, “We’re looking at the effects of that. It probably will” include sales at restaurants.
Guin feels like the measure will find support in many areas, as it affects everyone in the state.

“I feel like daring someone to vote against it,” he said.

Democrats have supported many measures like this, such as the recent revisions in the state income tax, for a number of years. He said the minimum threshold for income taxes was raised only this year after the governor supported it for the first time.

Guin said the state has seen enormous growth in tax revenue recently, and feels that the loss of sales tax revenue can be made up completely by anticipated growth in tax revenue.

“One of the things involved under security will affect us in Walker County,” Guin said, as there is a state dock in Cordova. “We’re going to pass a prohibition on allowing foreign entities from managing the state’s docks or providing security for the docks.”

Immigration also is addressed, requiring immigrants to register for a work permit before working in Alabama.

“It’s going to be a criminal offense to employ illegal immigrants in Alabama,” Guin said, adding there would be “tough sanctions for those who do.”

Also, Guin said the Democrats would push to “empower all law enforcement in all areas of the state to arrest illegal immigrants” and allow them to participate in the process to deport illegal immigrants. He said the state would provide funding to train local law enforcement as part of the act, which would expand on the abilities that state troopers already have to local police and sheriff departments across the state.

The agenda will also involve law to go after Internet predators of children and to give funding for enforcement of new child protection laws.

Under a “faith and values” section, Guin’s plan to offer Bible literacy classes in schools across the state is resurrected as it failed to be put into law in the last session. The Democrats also pledged to defeat efforts at redefining marriage or to provide the benefits of a marriage to a same-sex union.

Guin said Democrats also want to “pass a constitutional amendment confirming life is a gift of God and should be protected and that life begins at conception.”

Under education, “we’re going to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting the use of the Education Trust Fund for non-educational purposes,” Guin said.

The agenda will also increase funding for classroom discipline, “back-to-basics” education, classroom technology and the support of “students and the work of teachers and other education personnel, instead of bureaucrats and ‘pork’ products, according to a flyer e-mailed by Guin detailing the agenda items.

Health care probably will be “the most complicated issue that we will have to deal with,” Guin said.

The Permanent Joint Health Care Committee of the Legislature would be formed to guarantee access to affordable, quality health care for every citizen and to implement cost containment and access to affordable prescription medications, he said. The Alabama Legislative Health Care Access Trust will be created to provide scholarships for medical students who will set up shop in underserved areas of the state.
Guin said the Democrats also pledge to keep the state’s Medicaid program funded to “prevent a reduction of services.”

The ethics plank would stop all PAC to PAC transfers, require registered lobbyists to report to the Alabama Ethics Commission all expenditures related to appointed or elected public officials and pass legislation to strengthen laws against hiring relatives in state hiring.

Democrats would seek to eliminate so-called “pork projects” by requiring a line item in the budget rather than hiding funding within an agency’s funds to hand out later for a legislator’s project, he said.
“It’s a fairly comprehensive plan,” Guin said. “It’s the right thing to do for Alabama. Our commitment and our pledge to the state is that during the next session of the Legislature, these issues will be brought to a vote on the floor.”

According to the release, the Democrats will introduce the bills for the plan during the first 10 days of next year’s session.

State Rep. Tommy Sherer, D-Jasper, who faces Republican James Brooks on the November ballot, indicated Tuesday he also supports the package, emphasizing the elimination of the state sales tax on food, banning PAC to PAC transfers, state funding for education and all the faith and value issues.

FROM TODAY’S ANNISTON STAR:

State Democratic Party to give Dial an answer in days

By Brian Lyman
Star Capitol Correspondent

08-16-2006

MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Democratic Party may soon have an answer to Sen. Gerald Dial’s demands that the party disqualify its nominee for his seat.

But party leaders aren’t sure what that answer will be.

Zac McCrary, a spokesman for the Alabama Democratic Party, said he expects an answer in “days, not weeks,” to Dial’s letter last week. In the letter, Dial accused Randolph County Circuit Court Clerk Kim Benefield, who beat Dial in the Democratic primary in June, of misleading voters by not saying that campaign literature was paid for by Senate Majority PAC, which provided $270,000 in in-kind contributions to Benefield’s campaign.

Dial, who sent the letter to probate judges around the state, also asked for the disqualification of Senate president pro tem Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe; Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, Senate Majority Leader Zeb Little, D-Cullman and Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, the major contributors to Senate Majority PAC.

McCrary said lawyers still are reviewing the letter but said Dial “did not follow party challenge procedure” in filing the letter. The party requires challenges to be filed by June 19.

“I’m not even exactly sure what the party can do,” he said. “The party’s role in certifying a nominee in our race ended June 19.”

Benefield dismissed Dial’s letter Tuesday afternoon.

“I filed all the reports on expenditures and income required by the state, and I believe this is just some of his sour grapes,” she said. “It is clear he does not want to abide by the wishes of the voters of this district.”

Dial frequently sided with Republicans in his 32 years in the Senate and joined a group of senators on the Senate Rules Committee last spring that cut into Barron’s power within the Senate. Besides Dial, Senate Majority PAC targeted Rules Committee chairman Jim Preuitt, D-Talladega, and Sen. Jimmy Holley, D-Elba, but both won their primaries.

Dial has appeared in advertisements for Gov. Bob Riley’s re-election campaign, but insisted they had nothing to do with the letter. Dial also said he was not trying to challenge the results but alert the party to what he calls violations of fund-raising laws.

“That’s totally misleading,” he said. “That’s misleading the voters of the district as to who’s paying for these materials.”

Secretary of State Nancy Worley said Tuesday she had not received any complaints from Dial and that it would be “improper” to comment on the allegations.

Alabama law allows politicians to transfer money between political action committees, which can obscure the source of funds for campaigns. Senate Majority PAC’s in-kind contributions to Benefield’s campaign were listed on her June 1 campaign finance report.

Benefield defeated Dial in the June 6 primary, 53 to 46 percent. Dial spent more than $445,000 in May attempting to hold onto his seat.

Editorials

Republicans rising

In our opinion

08-16-2006

It did not come as a big surprise when a recent survey by the University of South Alabama Polling Group revealed that the GOP has finally broken ahead of the Democrats. According to the results, 40 percent of those polled classified themselves as Republicans, while the Democrats could claim only 32 percent of the respondents. Twenty-one percent declared themselves independent.

Slowly and steadily, the Republican majority has been growing. In 1996, the Democrats held a slim, 36 to 34 percent lead, with 29 percent in the independent camp. Now Republicans are up significantly, Democrats have slipped some, but the big change is among independents, who are now either Republicans or leaning that way. Some 55 percent of self-styled independents say they feel favorable toward the Republicans, while Democrats pull below 40 percent.

All of this to say that Republicans have convinced many Alabamians that their party should govern the state and with these converts added to the rank and file, the GOP has built a strong base of support.

But who are these Republicans and what attracted them to the party?

Once again, there is no great surprise here.

First of all, Alabama Republicans are white folks.

Fifty-one percent of the respondents who said they favored the GOP were white. Only 5 percent of blacks polled claimed to be Republicans.

And what attracts white Alabamians to the GOP?

Moral issues — same-sex marriage and abortion — were most often cited. Economic concerns ran third, behind the party’s conservative ideology. Those who favor the Democrats put support for “working people” at the top of their list followed by tradition — “my folks were Democrats, so am I.”

While these figures do not bode well for the Democrats, they do not indicate that Alabama is sliding toward a one-party system. Democrats remain strong in key cities and in the Black Belt, where economic issues are felt more keenly. In addition, though the ranks of independents have declined, they are still a significant force that will have more to say about who wins future elections than their number may suggest.

More than anything else, this poll reveals that Republicans have either convinced Alabamians that the GOP will champion their causes or convinced Alabamians to champion the cause of the GOP. Either way, the outcome is the same.

Unless the Democrats are able to find some fatal flaw in the Republican strategy, the GOP’s political future looks bright.