Senate Sketches # 1193

Senate Sketches # 1193

by

Senator Hank Sanders

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In times of crisis, do we turn to each other or on each other?  That is the question Alabama legislators faced as we struggled with the education budget this session.  I believe the evidence is abundant that we turned to each other.

The scarcity of education dollars was great.  To be sure, it was a revenue famine.  The famine first forced itself upon us in fiscal year 2008.  We thought we were prepared for any contingency because we had stored up $439 million in the proration prevention account.  All $439 million was consumed by the raging famine in that one fiscal year.

We had a line of credit of $437 million in the Rainy Day Fund.  In fiscal year 2009, we used that entire sum to fight back a 17.5% reduction in projected revenues.  After using the entire $437 million, we still had to cut back expenditures by 11% which amounts to $698 million.

For 2010, we had stimulus monies in the sum of $513 million from the federal government – our Big Mama/Big Daddy.  We used half of that and still had to cut expenditures by 7.5%, some $427 million.  The Great Recession has taken its toll in multiples.  The education budget fell from $6.8 billion in 2008 to $5.3 billion in 2010.  We were experiencing a crisis of scarcity.  Would we turn to each other or on each other?

Now we were faced with constructing a budget for 2011 without the following:  any projected growth in revenues; any proration prevention account to draw on; any Rainy Day account to shield us from fiscal storms; any ability to secure more dollars from Big Mama/Big Daddy (Federal Government); and the Great Recession was still in full force.  We were in a crisis of scarcity.  Would we turn to each other or on each other?

At the beginning, I thought we were turning on each other when Alabama Governor Bob Riley stated emphatically in his State of the State Address that we had plenty of money for education and other governmental purposes.  I was so disturbed I dubbed his proposed budget “Smoke and Mirrors.”  We were turning on each other, not to each other.

Then Representative Richard Lindsey, who chairs the Education Appropriation Committee in the House, and I began working closely together trying to get our arms around this massive challenge.  We turned to Joyce Bigbee and the Legislative Fiscal Office who possessed great expertise and a wealth of ideas.

Then we called on Dr. Paul Hubbert of the Alabama Education Association (AEA).  We had some ideas that were unacceptable to him.  He had some ideas that were unacceptable to us.  We reached an understanding.  We were turning to each other.

We called on four year colleges and universities leaders. They asked that all cuts to the budget be proportional.   We were being creative in trying to avoid cuts.  We met several times.  There was no fussing and fighting.  We turned to each other, not on each other.

We called on the State Superintendent of Education, the Alabama Association of School Boards, School  Superintendents of Alabama, CLAS, Two Year Colleges leaders, the Alabama Revenue Department, and others.  Each had their own ideas but we worked together in harmony.  We turned to each other, not on each other.

Finally, the Governor, his Finance Director, and others in the Executive Office did not play an adversary role.  They could have mucked up the whole thing, but they did not.  They responded when we asked.  We turned to each other, not on each other.

The budget sailed through the House of Representatives without a single Amendment.  House members understood that we all were doing our very best with a very bad situation.  The vote was 104 to 0.  They turned to each other, not on each other.

When the education budget hit the Senate, it did not get assigned to the Committee the first day for some reason.  The Finance and Taxation Education Committee met without the budget being officially before it.  There was not a single mumbling word.

I called Committee members over the weekend, including Easter Sunday, to discuss their budget concerns.  I was unable to reach a few of them.  Joyce Bigbee and others worked with Representative Lindsey and I into the night on Monday without a complaint.  We turned to each, not on each other.

The F&TE Committee met on Tuesday an hour before the Senate Session commenced.  That was too little time.  Yet, we considered and reported the education budget and 9 related bills within that hour.  We turned to each other, not on each other.

Finally, we were at the moment to consider the education budget on the Senate Floor.  Republicans and Democrats worked together in harmony.  There were 10 bills in all.  We passed the $5.47 billion budget and the accompanying bills in twenty some minutes.  The vote on the budget was 31 to 0.  Governor Riley called to congratulate us.  He said it was a masterful job.  We turned to each other, not on each other.

Now on to the Daily Diary.

Saturday – I facilitated a Unity Breakfast at 8 a.m. and met with Josh Hayes at 10 a.m.  I traveled 80 miles to Boligee in Greene County for a funeral at 1 p.m. and returned to Selma. In in the process, I talked with many persons including Twenty First Century Youth Movement (21C) leader, Danielle Harper, and her mother Patricia Harper and Greene County School Board members Elzora Fluker, Lester Brown, and Leo Branch.  I worked into the night.

Sunday – I did Radio Sunday School with Dr. Margaret Hardy, Radio Education with Perry County School Superintendent John Heard, and Sunday Review.  I participated in Sunday School, worked on the education budget, and discussed education issues over Sunday Dinner with Dr. Fannie McKenzie and her husband, Bobby McKenzie.  I worked into the night on many matters including a conference call with several senators and others.

Monday – I was at my office early to work on several items but made it to Greene County some 70 miles away by 8:30 a.m. where I talked with the following:  Dr. Carol P. Zippert; Robert Turner of Perry County; and Greene County Circuit Clerk Etta Edwards.  I returned to Selma, worked on Sketches, had lunch with Alesia Summerville of Alabama Power Company, traveled to Hayneville where I talked with Superintendent Dr. Daniel Boyd, Yvette Patterson, and Robert Grant of the Lowndes County School System.  I traveled on to Montgomery where I worked into the night on the education budget with Representative Richard Lindsey and Joyce Bigbee, Norris Green, Frank Gitschier, and others of LFO.  We also met with Dr. Frieda Hill, Chancellor of the Two Year College System.  I returned to Selma.

Tuesday – I finished Sketches, handled various other matters, and went to Montgomery for the following meetings:  Senate Bi-Partisan Leadership; House and Senate Leadership; Senate Democratic Caucus; Senate Finance and Taxation Education (F&TE) Committee and Senate Session.  I talked with the following:  Dr. James Mitchell of Wallace Community College Selma (WCCS); Lowndes County Administrator Jackie Thomas; Senate President Pro Tem Rodger Smitherman; House Speaker Seth Hammett; House Speaker Pro Tem Demetrius Newton; Representative John Knight; Representative Marcel Black; Representative Richard Lindsey; Perry County Commissioner Fairest Cureton; Lobbyist Joe Fine; Sharon Calhoun and Maria Alexander of the Senate Staff; Senator Tripp Pittman; Senator Charles Bishop; Senator Jimmy Holley; Dorothy Thomas, widow of Sheriff Isom Thomas; Senator Vivian Davis Figures; Youlanda Curtis of Washington County; Senator Lowell Barron; and Montgomery Simpson of Weyerhauser Corporation.  I also talked with numerous others about the education budget, worked into the night and returned to Selma.

Wednesday – I worked in my Selma office and still made it to Montgomery for a 7:45 Breakfast meeting of African American legislators.  I also participated in numerous other meetings involving the education budget and I talked with the following:  Representative John Rogers; Representative James Thomas; Representative Thomas Jackson; Representative Yusuf Salaam; Dr. Joe Reed of the Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC); Lobbyist John Teague; John Key of the University of West Alabama; Judy Collins of Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC); Selma Mayor George Evans; Wayne Vardaman of the Selma/Dallas Centre for Commerce; Elizabeth Vodde of the Senate Staff; Senator Ted Little; and Lobbyist Tammy Teague.  I attended a luncheon for the Community Bankers Association and participated in a meeting with the Alabama Association for Justice.  I co-chaired a Community Service Grants Committee meeting and facilitated a conference call concerning Black farmers.  I worked into the evening before returning to Selma where I visited four of my grandbabies.  I returned to my office late at night to work further.

Thursday – I went to my Selma office before going to Montgomery for the Senate Session.  I participated in a Confirmation Committee meeting and I talked with the following:  Senator Hinton Mitchem; Sharon Wheeler of the Ron Sparks for Governor Campaign; Sabra Barnett of the Senate President Pro Tem Office; Clarke County Commissioner Rhondel Rhone; Jennifer Moore of the Alabama Birth Coalition; Assistant State School Superintendent Craig Pouncey; Senator Marc Keahey; Greene County Democrat Newspaper  Publisher John Zippert; Lobbyist Tom Coker; Lowndes County School Board Member Dr. Denise Davis May; Barbara Brown of the Crime Victims Compensation Commission; Kim Riggins of the Department of Education; and Governor Bob Riley.  The budget bills passed the Senate in record time.  I returned to Selma to work into the night (my 3 year old and my 18 month old grandchildren came by the office to see granddaddy).

Friday – I worked on Sketches before traveling to Greene County where I talked with Patricia Harper and her son, and returned to Selma.  I talked with the following:  Twenty First Century Youth Leadership Movement (21C) leader Kim Zellars of New Jersey; ANSC leader John Zellars of Auburn; Phil Fraas of Washington, D. C.; J. W. Carpenter of Teach for America; Etta Edwards of Greene County; Sam Walker of the National Voting Right Museum; Ralph Paige and Heather Gray of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (the Federation); and Representative Earl Hilliard, Jr.  I worked on Sketches some more and other matters into the night.

EPILOGUE – The spirit in which we move makes a powerful difference.  When we operate in a “turn on spirit,” we invite defeat.  A “turn to spirit” invites victory.  I am really proud that we moved in a “turn to spirit.”  It made a powerful difference in a difficult time.

NOTE: Sen. Hank Sanders (D – Selma) has written weekly columns for papers in his legislative district for over twenty years. They are not available online from the rural, weekly papers which publish them. This column is provided by Sen. Sanders’ office to Doc’s Political Parlor for inclusion in the Daily Headlines.