Posted by Kathy at Birmingham Blues has a good post on the two statewide amendments up for a vote tomorrow. (Here is a Birmingham News article that summarizes the issues.)
Every editorial I have seen on the topic favors passage of both amendments. Sunday’s Daily News Digest has links to several editorials, and there are two more editorials today.
The Alabama GOP sent out a release that began, “Governor Bob Riley and Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard encourage you to vote YES tomorrow on Amendments One and Two.” Both Hubbard and Democratic Lt. Governor Jim Folsom have robo-calls going out with their voices urging you to support both amendments… It’s economic growth “without raising your taxes!”
Anytime you get Mike Hubbard and Paul Hubbert (AEA Exec. Secretary) dancing to the same music, that is noteworthy.
If you feel like being contrarian or curmudgeonly in the midst of the lovefest, here are reasons to vote against.
- If all four amendments pass tomorrow (including two that are local), our constitution would have 798 amendments. 798! How many times do you fix your car before you decide you won’t fix it anymore, you’d rather start over with a new one? Some folks won’t vote on any new amendments, believing that makes them enablers for a dysfunctional constitution.
- The Riley administration has said that if Amendment 1 doesn’t pass, the state would still come up with the incentives promised to ThyssenKrupp. Aren’t you a bit curious to see that happen?
- An eclectic group opposes them, including Roy Moore, Mo Brooks, and Jack Zylman, who is a former staffer for U.S. Rep. Earl Hilliard, among other things. (You can find a Word document with Zylman’s opposition here at Kathy’s post).
Me? I’ll probably vote for them. I mean, c’mon… Mike Hubbard and Jim Folsom asked me to.
Update: Actually, 799 amendments, not 798.
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Thanks for the link, Danny. I’m feeling a bit curmudgeonly, so my vote may cancel out yours. And my curmudgeonliness (is that a word?) stems directly from our legislature’s refusal to address constitutional reform. There are individual legislators who strongly support reform, but I’m convinced that most of them don’t want to see anything change. As long as they can persuade voters to continue voting for band-aid amendments, they can stall reform in its tracks.
I just found out that Roy Moore’s voting no. That’s enough for me to vote yes!
These two amendments are both good for Alabama.
Mo Brooks and Roy Moore are both against it so it has be good!!!
If Moore is against it, a YES vote must be the right thing to do. I think I’ll time myself to see how fast I can get through the polling place today. Think I can beat the two minute vote?
Not only was I the only person at the polling place, I saw a single name highlited as they searched for my name. I should’ve asked how many people had shown up total, but I didn’t think of it at the time.
Peter, if your experience is anything like mine or Dan’s, you breezed through with time to spare. At our polling place, a stumblebum with a faulty pen who paused for a coughing fit could have made it in under two minutes.