http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2011/06/our_view_after_seeing_its_bill.html
Thursday's death of the taxing authority bill for Jefferson County should not be the end of the struggle to get the state Legislature to help the county out of a financial bind the lawmakers put the county in. County officials' next move should be to ask Gov. Robert Bentley to call a special session to take another try at passing the bill.
To me, this is a risky proposition at best. Absent some indication that Beason will stand aside instead of blocking the bills in the special session, it's all wasted effort and wasted money. Because if Beason stands firm, we could end up at the end of a month with nothing accomplished... having spent the money for the special session but getting nothing in return for all that money.
The Birmingham News then descends into exactly the thinking that makes politics the deep pit of raw sewage that it has become in Alabama.
As for Beason, his colleagues should remind him he's not the only senator in the delegation whose vote should count. And if he thinks he is, they should treat his local bills the same way he treated the county's.
Is this really how we want legislators conducting business? Passing judgement not on the quality of the bill in question but on how often the sponsoring Legislator has opposed your own bills? The Democrats used to do that all the time, but though the Republicans PROMISED a change in how things were done, the only change so far has been which party has the whip-hand.
But do we really want Legislators killing what could be perfectly good legislation because they have a beef with the guy who is sponsoring it? Shame on the Birmingham News editorial staff for advocating such tactics. That way lies chaos, not to mention bad law.
The problem here...is that the political folks around Birmingham are looking at massive cuts and minimum services for county residents for at least one decade...maybe two decades. Their only way of survival is to get an occupational tax in place, then hope that companies and businesses don't pack up in Birmingham and leave the county.
ReplyDeleteFor those folks who live in county...your property values are pretty much shot for the next ten years. Don't expect any new companies to arrive or start-up. Life will be fairly miserable. I think Huntsville will end up being the largest city in the state by 2020...strictly because businesses packed up and left Birmingham.