Taking Note of the Alabama Bingo Drama

Bingo in Alabama

An out-of-stater tries to get a handle on the Alabama bingo issue for stateline.org, and writes it all up:

It has the drama and suspense of a John Grisham novel: pre-dawn gambling raids by state troopers, rumors of political payoffs, rowdy demonstrations at the State Capitol and a fly-over at this year’s Rose Bowl in [...]

Arab Says Hold On About that Sales Tax

Cash Register

About that Forbes.com story saying that the highest sales tax in the nation is found in Arab, Alabama…

The Arab Tribune says hold on.

According to the Tribune, not only does the town of Arab not have any businesses in the part of the town extending into Cullman County with its higher sales [...]

Alabama Town Has Nation's Highest Sales Tax - Updated

Receipt - 12% Sales Tax found in Arab

Update: Regarding this story, the Arab Tribune says that Forbes.com doesn’t have it quite right.

Alabama is #1 again – on the list of where you find the highest sales tax in the country: Arab, Alabama.

The tiny sliver of this northeastern Alabama city of 7,500 jutting south into Cullman County has the [...]

A few Sunday afternoon pointers

From Decatur Daily, If voters reject bingo, what will happen next and news that Governor will be sending in revised budgets that reflect national political realities.  Expect many headlines about teacher contracts being non renewed amid calls for bipartisan leadership and so on.

Stan Pate: An edgy force in Alabama politics is a profile [...]

Constitutional convention on the ropes?

At the start of this session, Demetrius Newton introduced HJR54 which if passed by both Houses, result in a convention to draw up a new state constitution.

Today the resolution was first put on the table then by voice vote carried over.  Meaning its not dead it just wants to take a little [...]

The Fiscal Note on Sweet Home Alabama II or SB380

One of the things missing in this week’s bingo sitzkrieg, has been any information about the tax revenue to be generated other than in very general terms, “about $200 million” or candidate Whaley’s statement half a billion a year was possible.

However, the required fiscal note from the Legislative Fiscal Office is not readily [...]

That PARCA survey

This weekend, the media reported a Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama survey showed 71% of those asked supported regulating and taxing gambling and a similar per centage supported electronic bingo (66%) and a lottery (70%).

However, the survey covered much more than that.  A few things that stick out to me:

  • Most rank education as [...]

And so it begins, Sweet Home Alabama II introduced

HB507, a proposed constutional amendment to regulate and tax bingo has been introduced by Reps. Black and Knight.

At first read, it appears to have something to offer all the major operators.  While it limits sites (to discourage “predatory competition”), it also states local amendments can be sought to add new sites.  Taxation is set at [...]

Friday Pre-Dawn Pix from Victoryland

Troopers arriving at entrance greeted by Atty Fred Gray

The struggle over the gambling issue is a remarkable one, a struggle of titans in the state. I haven’t said much about it because it’s so fascinating on its own without commentary. What meager words could be added here that would be worthwhile additions to what we are already reading in the daily [...]

Unemployment Takes Costly Toll on State

Going Out of Business sign in store window

Following up on Walt’s note last week about Alabama’s unemployment rate being the highest in 26 years…

The full picture is harsh – both in what it means in terms of sheer numbers of people out of work and what it means to the state’s finances.

From a December item called “Alabama Is Bleeding Rural [...]

Alabama's unemployment highest in 26 years

With a hat tip to the Dothan EagleIndustrial Relations has released the latest unemployment numbers, as of December, we are at 11%.   According to their press release (pdf), the only areas that have seen job gains over the past year are education, health services and government service.  Which creates [...]

What's going on in Edwardsville

A story I’ve followed thru the Cleburne News keeps getting more and more interesting. The town of Edwardsville has annexed large portions of non-contiguous land and created Special Development Districts, which offer the land owner relief from all state and county taxes in return for deeding 1% of the land to [...]

Will Gambling Consume All Other Issues?

Carnival Cruise ship - Fantasy

Walt mentioned the first bingo bill of the session this morning… looks like the gambling issue (along with the budget which must be addressed) may suck up all the oxygen available for other issues.

The acrimony between Gov. Bob Riley and AG Troy King appears to be growing. Did you read the exchange of [...]

txt n drive - how 2 stop?

Texting and driving

Texting and driving is dangerous, more dangerous than drinking and driving (e.g., here and here). So I have no problem with the idea that it should be illegal.

But as a practical matter, how are you going to enforce it?

Pull someone over whose drunk, and he or she is still [...]

Early Bird Gets No Worm - Yet

Email from legislator:

The Al. Federation of Republican Women are urging the entire legislature to pass Charter Schools by January 15th. I don’t think someone told them that it takes at least 6 days for a bill to make it all the way through the entire process assuming there is zero controversy. Since we go in [...]

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Legislative Dispatch

Change

I wish my friend Hinton Mitchem godspeed and good luck after his retirement from public service. Hinton, on Monday, announced what many had suspected — he will not seek re-election. I remember meeting Hinton for the first time while I was a student at Auburn University. He served the people of his [...]

Ten Minutes in the House, Senate Moves On

Riley and her friend Caroline joined Julie on the campaign trail in Isabella this past weekend.

Here is a quick preview of the upcoming week in Montgomery. This week will be a standard legislative schedule for the House. We will be in session on Tuesday and Thursday with committee meetings scheduled for Wednesday.
The House will take up a ten minute calendar this week. A ten minute calendar is [...]

Purple Dot Connection

MARCH MADNESS

TOP TEN INDICATIONS OF MARCH MADNESS

10.  Eric Massa inviting us to ask the 10,000 Navy men he served with whether he is gay.

9.  Larry Langford hitting the jackpot 33 times in one day and not remembering it.

8.  Ron Sparks being able to make payments on a $500,000 loan with an income of $80,000.

7.  Artur Davis [...]


Back in the Day...

Union Avenue in Ozark in the 1920s

Vintage postcard