The World Around You

In this morning’s Mobile Register there are indications of what the state will be facing if Amendment 1 is defeated. The Legislative Oversight Committee refused to consider any contracts yesterday because some of the agencies requesting approval of contracts may not even exist after the vote.

“From what I saw yesterday,” he said, “there will be a lot of goose eggs where there are numbers now.”

The contracts on hold would be largely state-funded, though some include federal or local dollars. They cover a range of services, from health care for the state’s juvenile offenders, to veterans and indigent tuberculosis patients to hiring a consultant to promote Alabama to out-of-state retirees.

Hiring consultants to plan, study and strategize seemed particularly frivolous when direct medical services to Alabamians are at risk, Butler said. “Planning and studying means you are looking at the future,” he said. “The future in Alabama is bleak.”

And that’s the truth.