The World Around You

Pat Cotter and Jim Stovall have a good analysis in today’s Birmingham News,based on poll data, of why Governor Riley is facing such an uphill battle. Their findings are:

First, it is clear that Alabama’s citizens are not happy with the quality of public services found here. They are tired of almost always finding the state at the top of lists of bad things, and at the bottom of lists of good things.

Second, Alabama citizens are, in principle, willing to pay for better government services. Time and again our surveys have found substantial majorities of respondents say that they were willing pay higher taxes for such things better schools, better roads or better health care. For example, in a 1998 survey, we found that about 58 percent of adult Alabama citizens said they would vote for higher taxes if “your local public schools said they needed more money.”

So what intrudes on voters decisions when the scenario we are currently facing is put before them?

But, we have also found citizens wonder whether the state government can solve the problems facing Alabama. This skepticism occurs not because citizens have questions about the power or capacity of the state government. Rather, they doubt that the people running the state government are really interested in solving the state’s problems.

Specifically, surveys conducted during the last decades consistently show that Alabamians do not trust the state government to do the right thing. In surveys conducted since the 1980s, a majority of Alabama citizens said they trusted the state government only “some” or “none” of the time. They see state government as wasteful and ineffective. A 1999 survey found that about 60 percent believed that the state government wasted “a lot” of money.

This infuriates me because it goes back to one of my core beliefs that actually was crystallized when I heard a rant by George Carlin. Where do we think our state leaders come from, outer space? Our state leaders are us. They are those citizens who have chosen to step up and be leaders. If you don’t think they do a good job vote them out! The problems is citizens in general don’t bother to find out what their legislator is doing or how he/she votes on issues the citizen cares about. Even better, run yourself! Choose to do something rather than just complain about how bad things are.

Adding to the governor’s difficulty in convincing voters to support his plan will be the eagerness of his opponents to remind voters of why they distrust the state government. In particular, those working against Riley’s plan will raise questions about both the size of the tax increase and the plan’s fairness and likely beneficiaries.

The governor and his supporters have, of course, anticipated these criticisms by including several “accountability” components in the proposal. These reforms certainly won’t hurt. But as reforms go, they also seem modest. In particular, they don’t address questions about the openness of state government, the level of political participation or the unfair advantage given some interests. In sum, it is not clear if they address the reasons for citizens’ distrust which seems to more involve questions of performance and responsiveness rather than details of budgeting or personnel procedures.

Guess what? Nobody is getting everything they want in this package. That’s why it’s a good package, on the whole. It gives and takes from almost everyone. No government is perfect, and no government ever will be. Citizens have to continually ask themselves if they are in fact insane. Because the definition of insanity (as many are well aware) is to keep doing what you’ve always done expecting different results. We are never going to see real change unless we stop doing what we’ve always done. This Governor has given Alabama the opportunity to take that first step. We’re at a crossroads and I fear Alabamians will not choose to take the path toward the “New Day” that this Governor promised in his campaign.

Steven has a good post about his six year old’s analysis on Al Sharpton.

James discusses the magnitude of Glenn’s influence over the rest of the blogosphere, based on sitemeter stats.

If this headline from the AP today is true, Governor says fate of plan hinges on media informing voters, than Ammendment 1 is in deep, deep trouble. It turns out that the Governor was speaking to the state’s newspaper editors at a conference on the coast. Knowing this, I feel a little bit better. I think the Governor should be telling every single audience he speaks to that they have a responsibility to educate those they come in contact with about this plan. Not just the newspaper editors, but teachers, businessmen and others have a responsibility to educate.

Speaking against the package was John Rice, a real estate developer in Lee County who is a former legislator now active with the Tax Accountability Coalition, which opposes the plan. Rice said it was too large and did not adequately cut out waste and restore trust in government.

He said once the plan is defeated, the Legislature could come back into session, pass a “short-term sales tax” increase to cover needs for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, then cut out nonessential spending and pursue “meaningful tax reform.”

With the current projected deficit at $675 million, Rice said the $1.2 billion in new tax revenue is excessive.

“The more money you raise in taxes, the more government you get,” he said.

But Riley, who took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves in speaking to the newspaper group, said the plan would lower income taxes for most, provide fairness in the system and leave tax obligations in Alabama below or even with regional averages. At the same time, it would provide the means to better educate students at all levels and end the threat of mass releases of inmates from overcrowded prisons.

He said he was tired of Alabama being “first in things that are bad, and last in things that are good.”

“This is not about politics. This is about transforming this state,” Riley said.