08/10/03

As a sixth generation Alabamian, I have a great love for our state and its people. Like many of you, I have long dreamed of our state reaching its full potential economically, educationally and culturally. It was because of that dream that I took a five-year leave of absence from my business career in the late 1980s to join the Cabinet of the first Republican governor in Alabama this century.

In order to pursue my dream for a better Alabama, I ran for and was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1994 and 1998. It was during the eight years I served in the Senate that I came to realize the state could not realize its full potential until certain reforms took place. And, government reform had to come first. 

As the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor last year, I ran alongside our Republican nominee for governor, Bob Riley, with both of us campaigning to reform government and oppose new taxes until government was reformed.

I cheered Gov. Riley on when he said on March 4, in his State of the State speech: "I will not entertain the idea of additional taxes until we reform the policies and practices that have created the problems we face today. Too many small businesses and citizens are burdened by our tax structure, and higher taxes should be considered only as a last resort, not the first."

Just two months after the above statement, Riley proposed not only the largest tax increase in Alabama history, but six times the largest tax increase ever in Alabama.

This year, Alabama taxpayers sent $5.4 billion in state tax dollars to Montgomery to be spent on government functions, including education. If Riley's $1.2 billion tax increase is approved by the voters, the Legislature will have 22.2 percent more to spend once this plan is implemented. And not one penny has been earmarked for education or any other program. In other words, it will be up to the Legislature to start from scratch and write the spending plan for this $1.2 billion windfall.

`Free money':

State Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, co-chairman of the General Fund budget-writing committee, who has been known to be pretty loose with taxpayers' money, was remarkably candid in an article in the July 13 issue of the Decatur Daily. He was quoted as saying, "This is free money, unearmarked, and it can be spent on anything that the Legislature deems appropriate, whether the governor supports it or not."

This undisputed "king of pork" knows of what he speaks and will be one of the primary legislators who will determine how this money is spent.

During my five years in the executive branch of government and eight years in the legislative branch, I have seen the bureaucracy in Montgomery grow at unprecedented rates. But, we have seen nothing compared to the growth we will see in government if this plan passes. This $1.2 billion tax increase is bigger than the entire General Fund budget, which funds all state agencies other than education. This is an unprecedented move to grow government at an alarming rate.

Voters are right to question why Riley is asking for an additional $1.2 billion if he says he needs only $675 million to meet the temporary shortfall in the budget (caused by fiscal mismanagement in government and a slowdown in the economy). And, we must remember that this additional $1.2 billion would not be a one-time windfall. It continues year after year after year, and once the economy begins to grow, so will the amount of money being sent to Montgomery.

Unfortunately, proponents of this tax increase have attempted to scare Alabamians by saying that if this tax package doesn't pass, the state will release thousands of prisoners into our neighborhoods and that our elderly will be kicked out of nursing homes and put out on the street. This kind of scare tactic is all too familiar. It is what the national Democrats have used against Republicans for years.

Many areas to cut:

The proponents of these taxes have carefully selected the areas they think our citizens are most vulnerable and are trying to alarm them by saying these would be the first areas cut. Believe me, there are many other areas that should be cut first, like $43.6 million that the Legislature has appropriated for themselves in this year's budget. During a year when the state is in a financial crisis, lawmakers increased spending on themselves by $5.4 million, a 14 percent increase.

The Legislature could also consider repealing a law they passed in May that increases spending for schoolteachers by $150 million, even when lawmakers knew they didn't have the money to fund this increase.

Unfortunately, many in government find it easier to ask you for more money than cut government. When the Legislature goes back into special session in September, the governor and lawmakers could do the state and its citizens a huge favor by immediately tackling the structural problems with government, and then Alabamians will be much more likely to vote for new taxes when they see that responsible action has been taken in Montgomery to reform government.