Posted by Helen Hammons writes this report for the Parlor about an interesting question raised on the Senate floor yesterday.
While the Senate continues to be stuck, probably on purpose, on SB191 Senator Myron Penn’s bill related to bingo, electronic included, in Macon County, Senator Scott Beason (R-Gardendale) raised an interesting issue at the microphone on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday morning. Are legislators shirking their duties and responsibilities by continually, on select issues, asking people to vote on legislative issues?
“Frankly on some of these issues, I’m not just talking about he gambling issue, it seems to me the Legislature wants to say, ‘Let the people vote; Let the people vote.’ Well, the people vote as a last line of defense. It is up to us to look at the issue, study the issue, debate the issue, come up with the best possible legislation for the people of the state – the best we can do. Then it’s up to the people to decide if what we did was right.
“What the Senate and the House have done over the last number of years, has been to shirk the responsibility of deciding what we think is best for the people of this state and whoever has the political clout to pass something through this Legislature and get it out to a vote of the people wins the day. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. This Legislature, this Senate, this House of Representatives downstairs should not shirk their responsibilities in deciding what is best and coming up with the best plan. What will give people the opportunity to have the best lives they can possibly have.
“I’ve often said…we always seem to want to let the people vote to decide issues, in my opinion, that are not good for the people of the state. We’re not letting the people decide whether they want to go to four-year property reappraisal schedule, that’s not one of the things we’re talking about, unfortunately. We should be, but we’re not. This Senate is not locked down for three or four days to decide whether or not the people of this state measures that deal with illegal immigration. No, we here talking about a gambling issue in one county. Again, this is not attacking this issue, I’m talking about issues overall.
“I’m talking about the argument being made of ‘let the people vote.’ There are a great number of issues the people of this state would like to see us do that are not even being allowed out of committee, much less being put out for a vote of the people. A couple of weeks ago, I presented a bill having to do with prior-year budgeting. I think if you went to the people of the state for five minutes and explained to them and told them what prior-year budgeting was and how simple it is, the vast, overwhelming majority of people would think it’s a good idea. It makes it simple; it makes the budgeting process one that no longer relies on forecasts, which is how we always get into trouble. All we would say is this is how much money we took in last year, this is what we’re going to budget this year and any excesses will be rolled over to the next year. So we have one year of a blip, of not being able to spend every dime the taxpayers provide to the state of Alabama. But that’s not even getting out of committee.
“So it’s a hollow argument to stand at these mikes and say, ‘Let the people vote.’ How terrible it is that if certain members are opposed to legislation, they say, ‘Let the people vote. Do we not trust the people to decide?’ Well, I think it’s clear, there’s some hypocrisy there; there’s a double standard. They want to scream hypocrisy at those who are against this bill, but they don’t want to look themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Well, yes, you’re right, we’re not letting the people decide on other things that would be positively approved by the people.’”
What do you think? Does the Legislature shirk its responsibility to make decisions on difficult issues by wanting to continually send things out for a vote? Or, what other agendas are at work.
The Gulf Coast insurance issue was brought up out of order, but Senator Larry Means objected, an objection he later withdrew and we went back to a filibuster on the Macon County bingo/gambling issue. Of course, we all know when the Senate gets stuck, there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes. Last week the Democrats were filibustering their own bill, now it’s the Republicans – so some kind of discussions are going on backstage, but unfortunately I can’t be in Montgomery to find out what. At lot of times Senators say vitriolic things for public consumption, while they’re singing Kumbaya and deals are being cut in back about what’s to happen next.
It is true that we live in a republic…that is our form of government. It is not practical for the general public to take repeated votes on issues. Some issues should indeed go to a public vote (like Aemnedment 1). But that process should be very rare. Beason makes a valid point.
I believe in the concept of initiative and referendum to a degree. I think that when the issues become hot-button and pit two differing interests – such as economic development versus gambling, as in the current situation near Dothan – a referendum may be necessary to essentially settle the issue, as it did with the lottery. If it is just a straight-on gambling bill the legislature should decide it and face the voters with their actions.
Is the legistlature shrinking by using the people as a third house? Anything that impedes legislation is generally a good idea in my book.
Is it a way of having gaining cover for unpopular decisions or “voting for it before voting against it”, sure.
[...] Doc’s Political Parlor: On Shirking Responsibility [...]
Anyone else find it strange that these are the same legislators who think the local voters are too stupid to elect local officials capable of making local decisions
Or are local voters smart enough not to trust their local officals?
Actually, Old Prosecutor, in at least two instances, it is the legislators who want the local voters to elect local officials and Governor Riley who wants to appoint them.
Senator Beason has a point, but I’d rather see him address the shirking of responsibility from another angle, such as the legislature’s continual failure to pass real reform and accountability legislation that a majority of their constituents favor.
In an article published by the Birmingham News on December 26, 2004 Representative Mike Ball wrote the following: In his address to the 1912 Ohio constitutional convention Theodore Roosevelt told delegates, “the initiative and referendum should be used, not as substitutes for representative government, but as methods of making such government really representative. Action by the initiative or referendum ought not to be the normal way of legislation; but the power to take it should be provided in the constitution, so that if the representatives fail truly to represent the people on some matter of sufficient importance to rouse popular interest, then the people shall have in their hands the facilities to make good the failure.”
I believe the majority of Alabamians would agree that their legislature has failed to represent them on numerous important issues for far too long.
The complete text of Ball’s article can be read @ http://www.doctoriq.com/mikeball.htm. Ball has introduced legislation, HB423 in the current session, which would make Alabama the 25th Initiative and Referendum state. The text of that bill is @ http://www.doctoriq.com/bama's%20I&R%20bill.htm.
To Poster #7 – you completely missed my point which is that the legislature refuses to give home rule to local elected officials – they want to keep the power to control local matters except when things like tax increses come up- then they bob and weave and pass the buck by wanting to let the voters decide
I note that they didn’t let voters decide if they got a 61% raise last year and they are not letting voters decide this year if taxpayers should pay for that health insurance