The World Around You

An editorial in the Baltimore Sun headlined “Alabama Leads”? Now there’s a switch!

Okay it’s time to start responding to some of the non-sensical arguments against Governor Riley’s plan. Let’s start with a letter to the editor in this morning’s Birmingham News:

No new taxation without reforms:

One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was in voting for Bob Riley for governor. Riley promised to bring new leadership to Montgomery. Unfortunately, it is the same old story of increasing taxation without any serious reformation or accountability.

Tens of millions of dollars continue to be wasted each year by our state bureaucracy. As a taxpayer, I am well aware of the need for adequate funding for basic services for our citizens. Riley has done nothing to rein in pork spending, alleviate waste or break the grip of lobbyists of the education and insurance industries. There is no proposal to levy a fair property tax on large tracts of land owned by big corporations. All Riley’s tax proposal can offer is more taxation without reformation.

I, along with many other Alabamians, regret voting for Riley. However, I cherish the opportunity of voting down any additional taxation measures without any serious reform in our antiquated system of taxation.

Joseph Michaels

Vestavia Hills

Mr. Michaels, where have you been for the first six months of the Riley administration? He has “done nothing to rein in pork spending”???? Two points, 1) the governor banned all pass through pork, which is the only real control he has over pork spending because 2) your elected legislators are the ones who appropriate funds to so-called pork projects. I use the term so-called because what is pork to one legislator is another legislator’s critical community need.

I didn’t vote for Bob Riley (or Don Siegleman), but he has imposed staggering reforms on a system that desperately needed them, and he has stated he is not finished. The use of state cars has been dramatically reduced, travel allowances have been cut, he has pushed for a significant reduction in state personnel, and his new state administrator of Alcohol and Beverage Control is examining the feasability of getting the state out of the liquor sales business. And you contend that none of this has alleviated waste?

Finally, the Governor is supposed to “break the grip of lobbyists”? Exactly how is he supposed to do that? People have a right to speak to elected officials and the officials have a right to listen. Once again, if you don’t like who they’re listening to, they need to be voted out of office. As long as many of our state’s elected representatives continue to follow certain lobbyists like sheep you are always going to have to go through them to get things done. The fact that the Governor’s package is going to a vote of the people largely intact shows he knows how to work within the system that is in place to make change.

The Governor cannot do it alone, and I would wager he would agree that more should be done, but in a state where at least a third of the people are going to reject any change, it is counter-productive for those who want more change to campaign against a step in the right direction because it doesn’t go far enough. I encourage those who agree with Mr. Michaels to support moving this state in the right direction for a change and to continue to ask for more from our elected representatives.