Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
& Home of Lawn Mower Repair

May 9, 2008

Folsom’s Long Road Ahead

Filed under: AL Issues, AL Executive Branch — Danny @ 1:11 pm

Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom is starting some movement on a plank from his 2006 campaign: a Mobile to Florence highway through west Alabama. A joint legislative commission is to report recommendations to the 2009 legislative session. Not only is this touted as a boon to economic development - especially in the Black Belt counties it would traverse, but Folsom would no doubt like to undergird that rumored run for the governorship in 2010.

Map of Alabama

May 7, 2008

Courage to be Different?

Filed under: AL Issues — Danny @ 3:15 pm

Helen Hammons offers this perspective on an issue before the Senate this week.


Groceries

In 2007 I took a lot of flak from some news colleagues, politicians, and even Rush Limbaugh, even though he didn’t call me by name, for asking former New York Governor Rudolph Giuliani about the price of milk and bread. The purpose of the question was not a “gotcha,” it was simply the fact that for at least a third of Alabama’s citizens the cost of groceries was a major issue. While many in the state will never have to worry and can pay any price, it really is a struggle for many, including those with full- time jobs.

Since then, the prices have continued to climb – more people are now feeling the impact. Alabama Arise is a group that has fought to bring the issues of people seldom heard to policy makers, those at the bottom of the economic ladder in this state. They have fought long and hard to reform Alabama’s antiquated tax system, to make the system more progressive instead of regressive, and have fought to let the people of the state vote on this issue. They are right. The people should decide and it’s amazing opponents of the legislation don’t want this issue to go to the people of the state. If past votes are any indication, it will be voted down, anyway.

Dr. Keivan Deravi an economics professor at Auburn University Montgomery said on Alabama Public Television’s For the Record in April, “There is no mystery that [the state’s tax structure] is highly regressive. It penalizes people at the lower economic level. ”

“Very rich people have very smart accountants…The lower income [people] have very little to manipulate and the higher income has a lot to manipulate and they have a lot of money to hire a lot of smart people.”

(more…)

May 2, 2008

Bill to Overturn SBOE Ban Unlikely to Pass This Year

Filed under: AL Issues — Danny @ 10:59 am

The House passed a bill that would overturn the ban by the State Board of Education prohibiting state legislators from working in the 2-year community college system starting in 2010.

If the bill is not made law this year, will some legislators wish they had not gone on the record voting for it? Though some have suggested as much to me, I am doubtful that’s an issue for many.

Even if the Senate passes the bill it would be too late in the session to overturn a likely pocket veto from the Governor. If/when the bill dies this year, you can be certain that it will be back next year.

April 30, 2008

Senate Baseball Not a Hit

Filed under: AL Senate, AL Issues — Danny @ 11:17 am

Baseball in flamesThe Senate filibuster over electronic bingo in Macon County ended yesterday amid controversy. Read all about it in the Birmingham News.

Afterward, Rules Chair Lowell Barron (D - Fyffe) tried to organize “baseball,” a tradition in both houses. (You may read here Rep. Cam Ward’s account of baseball in the House last year.) In a nutshell, in 10 minutes everybody in the Senate would get to present one bill. If anybody objects to the bill, it’s killed. The idea is that Senators will bring non-controversial bills that no one objects to, perhaps of local interest to the home district, and everybody has the opportunity to take at least some little success home.

Tensions were high because of the controversial end of the filibuster, and Sen. Ben Brooks (R - Mobile) was unhappy that his bill to reform coastal insurance was not coming up. Baseball was not a hit.

One lobbyist’s observation…

The anger from ending the filibuster certainly spilled over, and will be lingering today.

They attempted to work a “non-controversial” 10 minute calendar that had at least one bill for every senator, and they couldn’t even do that. If they can’t make a 10 minute calendar work, I think they may as well go home. The confrontation between Barron and Brooks was really pretty ugly - Barron kept saying that Brooks couldn’t harass him into putting his bill on the calendar, even saying at one point that he’d never do it. Tension is very high.

The take here is that Brooks may have misplayed the hand. No question he is quite committed to the bill regarding coastal insurance. But with most of the session gone in most unproductive fashion and many folks in the chamber already agitated about the end of the filibuster, what is the harm in taking 10 minutes to zip through some non-controversial bills where every Senator can get something passed? Can anybody find me three Senators who would believe that trying to bully Lowell Barron is a good way to get your bill passed?

Another observer agreed that if the Senate can’t even play their traditional baseball, it really doesn’t look good for the session.

April 29, 2008

Grimes on House Filibuster, 2nd Congressional Race

Filed under: AL House, Campaign & Election, AL Issues, AL and DC — Danny @ 11:01 am

Update: There is a follow-up to this post here.

The House Republican caucus officially ended its filibuster of HB 350 last week, but several Republicans intend to continue the filibuster, Rep. David Grimes (R - Montgomery) has told the Political Parlor. [Proponents of HB350 say the bill makes multi-state corporations pay the Alabama taxes they have owed since 2001. Opponents claim the bill represents a retroactive tax that attempts to tax companies on past earnings.]David Grimes

[Thursday,] I pressed my ‘Speak’ button along with several others and Mike Hubbard [R - Auburn] says, ‘What are you doing? The filibuster is over. We want to pass a couple of Jay Love’s bills.’

I said, ‘What? So Jay Love can get some headlines?’ He said, ‘No, it’s not just that. The Governor wants them passed.’

I am not going back on my word [to try to stop HB350]. If it was a bad bill yesterday, it’s a bad bill today.

Sounded like he was suggesting that Hubbard and Riley are trying to help Love win the 2nd Congressional District.

That’s exactly what they are doing. That’s exactly what they are doing. Maybe not Riley so much. But they want to allow a retroactive tax so Love can get some headlines. Love didn’t even write those bills. Someone in the Governor’s office did.

But I’m in good shape. The more they help Love, the more it helps me. Love doesn’t understand the district. It’s a rural district. That’s my people. He’s a city guy. Love was born on pillows. I was born on the ground.

He was getting warmed up.

Listen, did you know that I was instrumental in passing the first middle class tax cut in 70 years? I am going to let people know that I was instrumental in passing the first middle class tax cut in 70 years. Ever heard that before? All of Jay Love’s campaign material has that he was instrumental in passing the first middle class tax cut in 70 years. It was John Knight’s plan. Love voted for it, and so did I. Love’s bills died in committee. He gave Knight’s bill one vote. I gave it one vote. Then I guess I was instrumental in passing the first middle class tax cut in 70 years.

I don’t have to beat everybody in the primary. I just have to beat him to make the run-off with Harri Anne Smith. I’ll be in good shape.



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Alabama Tax Burden Illustrated

Filed under: AL Issues — Danny @ 10:35 am

Our state pushes a disproportionate share of the tax burden off of the wealthiest and onto the poorest, to the point that “Alabama has the most regressive tax system in the United States,” according to Gov. Bob Riley and others. The Press-Register calls this “morally indefensible.”

Scott Stantis of The Birmingham News has a particularly nice illustration of the point in an editorial cartoon last week. I reprint it here with permission. Click on it to see a larger image.

Editorial Cartoon - Alabama Tax Burden Illustrated - by Scott Stantis


Rep. John Knight has offered a proposal (HB 274) that would remove the state portion of sales tax on groceries (4%) and offers other tax relief for all Alabama tax filers, and would remove the state income tax deduction for federal income tax paid. General details are here and specifics are here.

Three points about the proposal:

  1. Most Alabamians would overall pay less or break even in state taxes.
  2. The proposal from Rep. John Knight “will lower overall state taxes by about 1% of income for those at the bottom, lower them slightly for those in the middle, and increase them by nearly 1% for those at the top.” Which, as you can see from the illustration, is a slight move toward tax fairness.
  3. Alabama has the lowest tax burden per person in the nation, and of course this proposal does not change that. We will still have the lowest tax burden per person if this passes.

The bill has passed the House. If it passes the Senate and is signed by Riley, the proposal will face a vote of the people in November.

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April 28, 2008

Considering the Vote on HB 274

Filed under: AL House, AL Issues — Danny @ 11:49 am

Some thoughts and observations on the House vote for HB 274 in which Randy Hinshaw (D - Meridianville) has been criticized for voting other legislators’ machines… Duwayne Bridges (R - Valley) has filed a complaint saying that Hinshaw voted Bridges’ machine as ‘yes’ on HB274, contrary to the way Bridges would have voted. Even Speaker Seth Hammett (D - Andalusia) recognized that Hinshaw was wrong on this one, according to Bridges.

  • Alabama House of RepresentativesVoting a legislator’s machine contrary to the way that legislator would want is particularly repugnant. The several legislators I talked to about this all agreed that it is common for other members’ machines to be voted the way the members who are away would have wanted, but I could not find even one on either side of the aisle that would defend Hinshaw.

    As odious as voting a legislator’s machine contrary to that legislator’s wishes is, Hammett could say that House rules were enforced fairly - because Rule 32 was not invoked. Voting others’ machines is permitted unless Rule 32 is invoked. Early in the process, Jack Williams (R - Birmingham) had requested that Rule 32 be invoked but withdrew his request prior to the final vote. As an aside, why didn’t any other House member ask that it be invoked?

  • FWIW, Greg Wren (R - Montgomery) also voted another’s machine that morning - even when Rule 32 was in force and contrary to the absent legislator’s wishes. David Grimes (R - Montgomery) had stepped out of the chamber (he was “frustrated,” he told the Parlor), when a vote for the BIR on HB 274 came up. (The BIR vote determines if the bill has enough votes to be brought to the floor before the budget is passed. Failing to pass the BIR vote typically kills a bill.) According to Grimes, Greg Wren tried to help Grimes by voting Grimes’ machine ‘No’ even though Grimes actually intended to vote ‘Yes’ on the BIR.

  • Could the bill have passed without the vote from Bridges’ machine? Was the will of the legislative body subverted? Merika Coleman (D - Birmingham) didn’t vote on the bill and she would almost certainly have supported it. Laura Hall (D - Huntsville) had stepped away, did not vote and has gone on the record saying she wanted to vote for the bill. A better question might be the one proposed to me by a House opponent of the bill who wondered why proponents weren’t counting better since they had the votes. Rep. Grimes volunteered to me his opinion that if the bill came up in the House again (for example, if the Senate sent back a slightly different version) that he felt sure it would pass. (63 House votes are necessary for a bill involving a constitutional amendment; HB 274 passed 63-38.)


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April 24, 2008

Strange Bedfellows in the Senate

Filed under: AL Senate, AL Issues — Danny @ 4:50 pm

Politics and strange bedfellows…

Among the many proposals to get the Senate unjammed, here’s one interesting story. At least it is to me…

An unlikely Senate coalition came to life last week and quickly died.Senate Seal

The Senate has been hogtied in a filibuster over the bingo bills for Greene and Macon County. A proposed coalition would have had Democratic Senators Myron Penn, Quinton Ross, and Bobby Singleton along with the Senate minority coalition (Republicans and dissident Dems) move those bills forward and end the filibuster. In return, GOP Senators Scott Beason and Ben Brooks would get considerations to move bills important to them, namely on immigration and insurance reform respectively. Republicans would have some language in the bingo bills about holding back expansion of gambling and could ostensibly say they were “containing gambling.”

It’s not difficult to see why this coalition “blew up,” in the words of one Montgomery insider.

The short-lived coalition was driven more by pragmatism than ideology and faced considerable obstacles. For example…

  • ALFA - ALFA is one of the strongest political groups in the state, especially on the Republican side. It does not want immigration reform or insurance reform, two raisons d’etre for the coalition. One insider believed that ALFA would prefer the entire session is killed so that there is a special session for budgets - the idea being that there would be less chance of something going against ALFA in a special session focused on budgets.
  • AEA - Paul Hubbert and Gov. Riley have worked on an education budget that includes large cuts to higher ed. AEA would not want any re-shuffling of the deck that could give a strong hand to anyone proposing to put money back into higher education at the expense of K-12.
  • Governor Riley - Riley also does not want to unravel the progress made to this point (such as it is) on the education budget.
  • Senate Democrats - Senate Democrats would not be eager to see a new majority diminish the role of the Rules Committee in setting the agenda. Since the new coalition would be motivated by pragmatism and not ideology, a real consideration would be the ire that the three Democratic Senators would draw from their Democratic colleagues.
  • Gambling considerations - Many Republicans particularly want to insulate themselves from the gambling issue and want to be certain they cannot be viewed as promoting gambling.
  • Senate Rule 9 - The coalition would have enough votes (18) to prevent the Senate from adopting the special order calendar from the Rules Committee, but without other votes it would not have enough (21) to substitute another special order calendar. Without a special order calendar, the regular order is used, and that is not typically a particularly productive means of getting to a bill that’s important to you.

A Senator here or there peels off, and the whole idea doesn’t hold together. But for one brief shining moment last week… you had the possibility of two most unusual sets of bedfellows - one in the coalition and one aligned against it.

April 16, 2008

Editor: Not an Empty Tome

Filed under: AL Senate, AL Issues, Faith & Politics — Danny @ 4:28 pm

The general editor of the Bible Literacy Project fires back a defense of the textbook The Bible and Its Influence in response to Sen. Scott Beason’s criticism of the project.

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April 15, 2008

HB 274 Passes

Filed under: AL House, AL Issues — Danny @ 4:04 pm

The House bill on grocery sales tax that was mentioned in this morning’s post passed 63-38 this afternoon. If it passes the Senate, it will go to a vote of the people in November.

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Removing Sales Tax on Groceries on House Floor Today

Filed under: AL House, AL Issues — Danny @ 10:55 am

A bill to remove the state portion (4%) of sales tax on groceries is coming before the House today. It could also come before the Senate as early as today.

The Birmingham News calls it a “a much-needed plan to make Alabama’s tax system more fair” that “can take a significant step toward making our tax system less of an embarrassment and less of a drain on our state’s poorest people.”State Tax Burdens on Highest and Lowest Incomes as a % of Income

Studies have found the poorest 20 percent of Alabamians (who made under $13,000 a year) paid 10.6 percent of their incomes in state taxes, compared to 3.8 percent for the top 1 percent of taxpayers (whose annual earnings approached $700,000).

That’s not fair. Somebody needs to be paying less, and yes, somebody needs to be paying more.

Alabama has the lowest taxes in the nation and still shifts a disproportionate burden onto those in poverty.

The House is expected to debate a proposal from state Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, that would flat out remove the state sales tax on groceries and cut state income taxes for poorer Alabamians. To make up for the state’s lost income, Knight’s plan would end Alabama taxpayers’ deduction for federal income taxes, increasing the amount paid by the wealthier among us.

By Knight’s estimation, 80 percent of Alabamians will either save money or break even under his plan. Even families with incomes as high as $125,000 will come out to the good, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office.

The bill would ultimately require a statewide vote of the people for passage.

Earlier in the session, the Press-Register called our high taxes on the poor “morally indefensible.”

ALABAMA is a low-tax state that imposes some of the highest taxes in the nation on the poor.

State lawmakers are content to live with this morally indefensible dichotomy. It’s either that or they’re too cowardly to risk any political capital trying to overhaul the state’s wildly unbalanced and wholly unreliable tax system.

The Huntsville Times called this bill “perhaps the most important proposal to come before it in many years,” and has noted that Alabama is “the only state with a sales tax so harsh on a family’s weekly food bill.”

Even the University of Alabama paper The Crimson White gets in on the act and writes, “we cannot ask, due to fundamental principles of fairness and equity, for the poorest in our state to continue to bear this weight on the necessities of life.”

FWIW, other papers are talking about it: Montgomery Advertiser, Decatur Daily, Tuscaloosa News, Daily Home, Anniston Star, Gadsden Times, and Times Daily.

April 11, 2008

Alabama Tax on TV

Filed under: AL Issues — Danny @ 3:47 pm

APTV logoTonight at 8 pm on Alabama Public Television, “For the Record” will focus on the state’s tax structure. At 8:30 pm, the national public television program “NOW” will focus its weekly program on Alabama’s regressive tax structure.

So says my email, and Tim Lennox’s blog confirms.

There are those here for whom this is Tivo material.

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Beason Divinity School

Filed under: AL Senate, AL Issues, Faith & Politics — Danny @ 12:43 pm

Sen. Scott Beason (R - Gardendale) jumps into theological waters and offers his take on “The deception of the Bible Literacy Project” for WorldNetDaily yesterday.

Those can be difficult waters to navigate.

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April 3, 2008

House Bill on Wet-Dry Referendums Passes

Filed under: AL House, AL Issues — Danny @ 11:26 am

Ballot Going into BoxA reader pointed out in email that HB393 passed the House without much fanfare this week. The bill would allow communities with fewer than 7000 residents to have a referendum to go from wet to dry or dry to wet.

We can imagine without difficulty which of the two options (changing from wet to dry or from dry to wet) will be featured in more elections. The economic incentive and deep pockets are on the side of going wet, and available campaign money will have larger influence in smaller communities. Even conservative Wal-Mart has financed elections to change communities from dry to wet.

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April 2, 2008

Proposal to Eliminate Grocery Tax is in Committee

Filed under: AL Issues — Danny @ 10:23 am

Alabama is one of two states that fully taxes the sale of groceries. HB274 would remove the state portion of the sales tax (4%) and raise the income tax threshold for all Alabamians. The bill is made revenue neutral by eliminating an income tax deduction that only two other states allow.

Dan at Daily Dixie has posted on it and has the details here.

The House bill is in the House Education Appropriations Committee this morning. The Senate version of the bill, SB 431, is in the Senate Finance & Taxation - Education Committee this morning.

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