The World Around You

I hope it’s just a stomach ailment.

The headline is more encouraging than what lies behind it. Support for additional taxes is up among legislators, not the population at large. It does still indicate that we will have some sort of tax increase, but that was in the cards anyway. The real question is what type of tax and how much? The session starts tomorrow and I have a feeling the proposals will be coming fast and furious, beginning with the unveiling of the Governor’s budget.

Artur Davis understands that the Alabama Democratic Party has problems. The Democratic Party does not strong leadership if it is going to deserve to regain the Governor’s office that it so abused in the last administration. He’s also correct that timid has never been a successful strategy and that bold ideas are worth a try.

There appears to be a positive story buried in this report. Alabama is moving in the right direction and the main reason we are ranked so low is the fact that we have been putting off necessary maintenance of personnel and infrastructure to ensure a sound footing for government. We all know that that procrastinating is going to bite us someday and this report is concerned with the someday. Alabama government is not setting itself up to be successful in the future, not so much from poor management, but from a denial of the realities of the future. Maybe reports like these will help change that tide, but not when the full story is covered up under headlines of poor management.