State of the State Address

Well, things at Alabama Public Television were so bad this year that a satellite hookup went awry and we lost the entire speech this year. APT filled in time until 7 p.m. and then plugged a live economic summit they were hosting later in the evening...and then one of the anchors signed off forgetting one of the four main guests as he was ticking off the list. Considering we pay a lot in pledges for this service, it was not a good night for us, the consumer and taxpayer.

You can read the full address at this link, by the way:
http://www.governorpress.state.al.us/pr/sp-2009-02-03-sos2009.asp. But here is the shortened Readers Digest version, the Gospel According to Ed:

It is interesting to not that out of five pages of address I printed out, one-fifth of the speech addressed gambling and gambling taxes, a subject we deal with in Walker County a lot. With calls out for a tax on gambling to help pay education, Riley said that the current proposals would only bring in less than 1 percent of the $12 billion in state and federal money that Alabama spends on education. Moreover, he pointed out that other states that do have gambling are cutting their education budget, so he labeled as bogus the claim that expanding gambling and taxation would result in not having to reduce education funding.

"The real question is: are we willing to invite more misery, more corruption and more crime in our state just to get less than 1 percent? I know I'm not and the people aren't either. Ladies and gentlemen, gambling is not the answer," Riley said.

"The Legislature has been polarized and paralyzed by the issue for years. And yet again, the most power special interests have gotten together and they are determined to make this the number one issue for this session. But you shouldn't waste another minute trying to expand gambling. Certainly not when more important issues demand your attention, like creating jobs, making government more honest, and protecting educational achievements."

Likely the Legislature won't do anything, but some will try. It is good that Riley is taking the stand to prevent a terrible official link to gambling. I once thought the state should try to get what they can, but I now feel it would only justify something that probably is not legal in the first place, and for something that would not really give a reasonable amount of funds. I frankly don't see the bingo halls giving their fair share to charities, and a small state tax won't make up for that shortcoming, nor for all the social ills that they bring. (Then again, I don't suspect we'll see many full-page ads in local papers asking for a state tax on themselves...and if they do, it will be confirmation that the revenue would be a drop in the bucket to what they are currently raking in.)

Riley opened the speech telling Alabamians their state government took steps so that the state is weathering the economic storm much better than other states. He recited a number of statistics about the state: business climate ranked in the top 3, ranked fourth for people moving into the state, seventh lowest in foreclosure rates, 383 new and expanding industry announcements in the past 12 months, more than 14,000 announced new jobs in the past 12 months, and so on. He said last month a panel of economists said Alabama "is poised to come out ahead of the nation as the broken economy mends."

He said the state could not wait on Congress to pass a stimulus plan. (I imagine legislators will disagree as some have talked about postponing the budgets until a special session later this year.) He shocked no one by not calling for higher taxes but for fiscal discipline. He called for a back-to-work tax credit of $500 to encourage companies to hire unemployed workers. He wants a targeted job creation tax credit of $1,500 over three years for each new job created in counties with the highest unemployment levels, citing the Black Belt and rural counties in general. (He didn't mention what the cut off point would be.) Frankly, every little bit helps -- and why aren't such measures already on the books?

As expected, he made a pitch to protect some of his cherished education initiatives, including the Alabama Reading Initiative and some involving math and science and distance learning. Those programs are popular and effective, but that could be difficult in proration. Most salaries are protected, after all. If we start protecting programs, even popular ones, I have an awful feeling that toilet paper in schools will be replaced by sales catalogs. (More appropriate would be pages from some of these bureaucratic reports that bog down educators every year.)

He asked for "a complete overhaul" of the state's ethics laws, the first major rewrite since 1973. He did not link it to any scandals, but there have been plenty to go around in the state to warrant such action.

"It gives citizens a clearer picture of the money being spent to influence public policy and public officials. No longer will there be unlimited wining and dining by the special interests," Riley said. "This reform ends that. And it requires full disclosure of everything spent by lobbyists on elected officials."

He said conflicts of interests are disclosed and public officials will have to disclose ownership or contacts with any entity that gets state funds, and the same would go for their spouses. Moreover, the Ethics Commission for the first time would have subpoena power, with the attorney general or district attorneys given a reasonable amount of time to prosecute or to state they decline to prosecute.

In the end, it was modest by the number of items asked for (or in the case of gambling, not asked for), but it amounted to a good request in a year where there is not much money to go around.

Then again, I have an awful feeling APT is going to request more funds. I don't even know what to say about that.