Thanks, Fritz!

Fritz Schranck over at Sneaking Suspicions was kind enough to give Mac Thomason and me a link on his commentary about the New York Times piece which examined our state's new $1.2 billion tax proposal.

I wrote back to Fritz to thank him for the plug, and then got all long-winded. After I finished, I figured it would make a pretty good post, so here's my take on the Salvation of Alabama, Volume 312--

Our taxation problems (in addition to everything else we have wrong) has been an ongoing source of frustration.

The tax proposal put forth by Riley does attempt to ameliorate some of the more pernicious aspects of our system of revenue, but in the end, a far more destructive and divisive problems exists in our 1901 Constitution--from whence all this mess sprang. Unfortunately, piecemeal reform is only treating the symptoms of the problem (inequitable taxation and insuring an adequate level of funding for the public good), actually fixing the state can only be done by fixing the source of its woes.

This has been difficult to do for a variety of reasons, the most obvious of which is that a small group of persons in power control the means by which the Constitution can be altered or rewritten. They, and their cohorts in the lobbying industry, benefit mightily from the inherent patronizing unfairness and bigotry of the document, and any attempt at reform on a fundamental level has been beaten down. Repeatedly. Even the current tax proposal, for all the talk of historic reformation, is nothing that shows REAL political leadership, in that it is only a package for a voter referendum.

The Democrats (who comfortably control both Houses of the Legislature, along with every seat of state power except the governancy) see this as a way to win politically, no matter what happens in the voting booth--if it passes, they can say it was only with their efforts that they managed to help push it through. If it doesn't pass, they can deflect public criticism from themselves by either pinning it entirely on pony-riding, Billion Dollar Bob Riley (Filthy Stinkin' Republican), or by saying that they agreed only to put it to th' voice o'the people--not truly wanting to raise taxes on us po' folks, but rather wantin' to let us'ns have a say.

If this package truly is one that is necessary, it could have been adopted legislatively without first filtering it through a referendum--true leadership would have required representatives to put some of their political capital on the line in defense of their decisions, rather than being able to sit back and remain fat and happy no matter which way the electorate votes.

If this package truly is our salvation, what's supposed to happen if it doesn't pass the referendum?

There is no plan B.

Riley, I'm sure, sees the package as necessary given the financial mess the state's in, (and there should be no debate that it is well and truly in a mess) but his flaw are his statements proclaiming this as true reform. In fact, though, it's just shifting the burden around--it works within the existing framework of state codes which got us here in the first place.

Yeah, Windows XP is just wonderful--but in the end, it's still just a fancy version of MS-DOS.

The powerful few who benefit from the current situation (aided and abetted by the 1901 Constitution) will continue to benefit, at the expense of everyone else. No one seems to want to admit why it is we have had near continual fiscal crises, and we keep pouring money into a system that continually fails its us.

We are blessed with an incredible wealth of natural resources and talented, capable people. It is inexcusable that we allow it all to be squandered by (and upon) a group of individuals who work harder on crafting legislation to make the blackberry the state fruit than on representing our best interests.

Then again, that's just my two cents worth.
posted by Terry at 10:13:00 AM