Wet-Dry referendums are likely in Walker County

Well, it has been a long time since I've been in the middle of a wet-dry referendum. Now, I think I'm going to see little ones all over the place.

As you may have heard, the Legislature overrode Gov. Bob Riley's veto the other day to allow cities with populations of 1,000 to 7,000 to have wet-dry referendums in those cities. A number equalling the the total of 30 percent of the voters in the last municipal general election can have their names on a petition sent to the city council. Then the council sets a wet-dry referendum on the sale of alcohol in that city.

Years ago, you used to see these countywide referendums that decided wet-dry issues, and they were grand affairs. In those days, it was the only time preachers got involved in politics, and you would hear a political stump speech right there on Sunday morning. I would not say this is true for all preachers, but some can make for great political stump speakers. We would hear a cascade of statistics about how alcohol can ruin lives (and much of it true, to be sure).

Meanwhile, there would be newspaper ads, flyers and all sorts of excitement. The pro-alcohol people would make their cases for economic progress, but they didn't have opportunities to speak...and even if they did, I wonder how many would have came out for it in public. It was usually faceless committees advocating going wet (much like these full-page bingo ads we now see in the paper that don't identify themselves, either). The pro-wet forces certainly had a hard time competing against those Sunday sermons and concern for families, and in the end they would usually lose in my neck of the woods.

Before I got to Walker County, the city of Jasper went wet, and it is no secret one can go over a couple of borders to get their alcohol. The small cities have always been jealous of the resources that Jasper and other areas have, and alcohol revenue can be included in that. Some of the towns may also be jealous of the bingo revenue, although Carbon Hill has it within its city. Some city departments or boards are benefiting to some extent from bingo revenue or donations. At the East Walker Chamber of Commerce banquet, Sipsey Mayor Anita Sanders was quick to point out renovations on local structures in her town were owed in large part to bingo money. But, as I said, only Carbon Hill actually has any bingo halls.

The envy over alcohol funds becomes more enflamed as the economic downturn has made it tough for the small towns to survive. Carbon Hill and Cordova have not been in great shape for a while, and Dora is undergoing an earthquake of sorts, losing 30 percent of its tax revenue (and possibly more, as Dora Mayor Chris Edwards is beginning to remember businesses lost within the past year).

There was a time when I couldn't imagine small towns with their small churches in rural areas of a county giving over to alcohol sales. But between the economy, changing outlooks and the foothold of electronic bingo, it has not taken long to hear positive responses toward getting alcohol sales. In fact, two towns are looking at it.

Carbon Hill, in fact, is practically jumping up and down to do it. I talked informally with council members and city officials after a called city council meeting before the override, and it was clear the city leaders had no problems with either bingo or alcohol.

After the override, Carbon Hill Mayor Chris Hart said, “We want to get our ducks in a row first,” adding he wants to city with city attorney and state Rep. Ken Guin to go over the bill. “This would boost our economy dramatically," he said.

Edwards, who will discuss dealing with the economic downturn in a called council meeting Thursday night, received several phone calls about the issue the day I called him. “I do think there is a strong push for it," he said.

He said it is an option the council will want to look at as alcohol sales would help to recruit a replacement for Food World (once the cash cow for Dora) or some other major restaurants that have passed over the city before. He said he understands Publix will not come to a city without alcohol sales, for example. He also noted the city deals with residents going to Jasper and Jefferson County on either side looking for alcohol.

Cordova Mayor Jack Scott said Tuesday he hadn't talked about it with the council, and he didn't know if it would pass considering the church vote. However, he would just as soon the alcohol revenue came to his town than to go to Jasper, saying something has to be done to pay the bills in Cordova. He would favor selling alcohol in retail settings, although he would oppose an open bar to yet.

The only public distancing from the issue came from Sumiton Mayor Petey Ellis, who said it had not been brought to the council and if someone brought it to them, then they would consider it. He also noted the city is in good financial shape. Maybe they do oppose alcohol sales. Still, that left a lot of wiggle room as far as taking a stand. That could come in handy if a petition is ever presented. For that matter, the wet forces in this old-fashioned small town might want to be positioned in an old-fashioned faceless committee. (It was interesting I brought it up at a city council meeting, and none of the other council members said a word about the subject.)

Mind you, petitions may not come tomorrow, but they could come in time. I have stated before in a column I am not really happy with the idea of going wet, but -- having fought against the tide of electronic bingo sweeping into the county that we are now awash in -- I am resigned that it may come anyway because of the desire to bring in restaurants and other establishments that won't come to a dry county.

What is almost incredible is that we haven't solved the bingo issue. The Alabama Legislature, in its infinite wisdom, not only didn't resolve that issue statewide, but threw another one in our lap to chew on at the same time. Now we have more controversy than ever before to go to war with each other over.

It's enough to drive someone to drink -- and they may drive all the way to the polls to do it.

A matter of ethics

Somehow the word "ethics" and Alabama government have not gone well together in recent years. We have had a number of situations that gave given pause to state and local residents. We've had questions about a county commissioner and a mayor to go before the Ethics Commission. We've had one legislator, a state legislator who was House majority leader, who had contracts with two state community colleges for work that became a spark for statewide debate. That is not to mention all of the other allegations concerning legislators over the past couple of years. We have had governors on both sides of the aisle to be tangled by ethics, losing their jobs in the process.

Some will argue fine points over certain cases, and that's fine. The individual cases are not what I am concerned about. I am concerned about a lingering pattern of problems in a state where the good ol' boy system continues to get the best of us. We know there are problems. How many and how much of it relates to Walker County, well, who knows? The fact is, this is going on statewide at such a clip that it is bound to happen here sooner or latter, if it hasn't already happened, and something has got to be done about it.

Gov. Bob Riley stepped forward this year to make ethics reform a big part of his legislative platform. Elsewhere on his Web site, he mentions that "in Alabama, a lobbyist can spend up to $91,000 per year on a single legislator without being required to report it. That’s $250 a day that special interests are able to spend entertaining officials without the public’s knowledge. Also, under current law, those who lobby the executive branch for state grants or contracts are not required to register with the Ethics Commission."

He mentioned his proposal in his State of the State address:

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

"It ensures that all potential conflicts of interests are also fully disclosed. Public officials will have to divulge any ownership they have in, or contracts with, an entity that receives any state funds. It also requires this same level of disclosure for their spouses. The Ethics Commission will – for the first time – have subpoena power to carry out its mission. And an attorney general or district attorney will be given a reasonable amount of time to either prosecute an ethics case or decline it."

According to the Birmingham News, Alabama is the only state with an ethics agency that does not have the power to subpoena.

Of course, this may fall on deaf ears again. Stars may literally have to fall on Alabama before reform can come. The Birmingham News noted in an editorial Sunday that Alabama is one of only six states left in the union that have not passed ethics reform in the past four years. As usual, we are gearing up to be last.

Moreover, legislators did not rush across town to an ethics seminar available to all legislators one day last week in Montgomery. Even though they were in town, the governor had made an issue of state ethics, the two-year college system had its share of state headlines and the event was arranged not to conflict with legislative duties, only one out of five state legislators showed up.

Appropriately, the seminar took place the day that state Rep. Sue Schmitz saw her retrial start on federal fraud charges.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical. There was good news in that a House committee did approve giving the subpoena power, the first time a legislative committee has done that. Perhaps we should have hope, but passing a committee is still small potatoes compared to getting it through the House and the Senate in general.

Citizens should demand action on the bills. They should demand that legislators, many of whom have been dragged through the mud themselves, pass these bills as a means of bringing reform to our state. Legislators should be lining up to bring these types of reform.

I should be hopeful. I am not. Let's all hope I'm proven wrong.

A funny way to budget

Sometimes the world of budgeting is something to behold in government, where the slight of hand is sometimes more agile than on a Las Vegas stage. Many times it becomes a matter of whose projections do you believe or whether some funds are included or not.


I am not prone to agree with U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby every day of the week, but he was certainly right this week to warn the Alabama Legislature not to base its budgets this year on what is coming from Washington. But of course, that is what is happening. Last year, there were rosy projections in time for the election, and some say that the governor was the one making the rosy projections that time. At any rate, the Legislature signed on to it as well, and we wound up with a shortfall. Now we have school proration and we are already digging out of the rainy day accounts.


But the byword from any number of cities, counties and states is to wait for the stimulus package. It has been described in such terms that, depending on the version you like, it will fund everything your heart desires, and that includes the hearts of career politicians who want to cover up their losses and hand out the pork. The real effect was to help out the economy, and you can see by Tuesday's near 400 point drop there are a few skeptics in that arena.


Of course, things get more diverse in Walker County. The Jasper City Council appears to be headed down the right path as it meets at noon Thursday to consider ways to trim items and as it has already passed a three month freeze on non-budgeted spending items. If it does get stimulus money, it will likely be used for projects that are already engineered and are ready to go. No one can blame the city and they are good projects. We just hope from the federal standpoint that these projects can create some construction or other jobs. It does not appear the city, at this point, is plugging leaks with stimulus money. That cannot be said of Montgomery, where two new Democratic congressman from Alabama have already been publicly blasted by the AEA for voting against the stimulus, taking away their precious education budget funding.


Then there is the Walker County Commission, which is getting just under $2 million in funds just from the license fees for bingo halls. And the best part is we have no plan on how to use the money in the wake of the commission got rid of the rules and we have to keep in mind the court still has to rule on whether electronic bingo is legal. It has its own stimulus package, but all it really stands to stimulate is illegal gambling rather than any set need. At the very least it may at least help out the county’s General Fund for a while, and the county has plugged up that borrowing that got it in trouble a while back and seems not to be in dire shape. But we would feel better if the commission held a meeting like the one Jasper is holding. We would feel better if all local governments had such a meeting to review their current budgets rather than depend on pie-in-the-sky bailouts that may not last forever.


In short, government finds funny ways to fund itself these days. How funny it remains a year from now when these budgets get executed and there is no more free lunches to fill the lunch pail.

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.

Ed's first guests on radio (week of Feb. 2)

I've been rather busy the past couple of days. (Half of it fulfilling my obligation of going through receipts for the IRS, and it's still not over. Did I really buy that many batteries for tape records?) However, I can at least turn in a quick blog this Friday night to say I have the lineup of the first week of my new radio show, "Talk of the Town," on WJLX, 1240 AM, starting at 2 p.m. Feb. 2.

Monday, Feb. 2: Jasper Mayor Sonny Posey, to talk about events at City Hall, including the future of Sherer Auditorium and dealing with the economic crunch in terms of tax revenue.
Tuesday, Feb. 3: It's the first day of the Legislature, starting at noon. (Gov. Bob Riley should address legislators at 6:30 p.m., which should be televised by Alabama Public Television, going by tradition.) I hope to talk to our local legislators (probably on tape) and possibly other experts, depending on scheduling.
Wednesday, Feb. 4: Linda Lewis of the Chamber of Commerce of Walker County will go over the progress of the Focus Walker County plan and other plans for the chamber. I hope to also ask her about what economic impact she is seeing from retailers in the area and how this could affect the chamber's plans.
Thursday, Feb. 5: Managing Editor James Phillips of the Daily Mountain Eagle will be in to talk about recent news in the area and hopefully give us some insight into the newspaper and what is happening with the newspaper industry.
Friday, Feb. 6: Ezekiel Nichols, who does some economic teaching at the University of Alabama and is a native of the county, will discuss the status of the economy and how President Obama will handle this under his watch, as well as some insights into the local economy.

The following week, Feb. 10, I'll also have some hospice ministers to talk about how one ministers to the dying and how this impacts the ministers themselves. I also know Feb. 12 county engineer David Edgil will discuss projects in the county, and I hope we touch on the status of the closed roads and bridges in the county, as well as improvements at the airport. I should be able to wrap up the second week quickly and get ahead on some other bookings.

Keep in mind that I'll leave room for breaking news when it happens, and we'll have quick summaries of what is going on in national, state and local news, weather, sports, stocks, entertainment, etc., sometimes from our reports and sometimes from the resources of CNN Radio. I also hope to do some commentary as well, as well as attend meetings and events, and maybe bring some sound bites back to the station. It's rather all new to me, but I am excited we can give something the county has needed for some time. I'll certainly welcome your feedback on what you like, and we'll do the best we can. Remember, this starts Feb. 2 and will be Monday through Friday at 2 p.m. on 1240 AM.

How we got bingo in 1992

Doing research for a client at Ed Howell Communication, I finally had time to look at the 1992 issues of the Daily Mountain Eagle concerning how bingo got started--at least the paper kind. It is water under the bridge perhaps, but it makes for some interesting reading in the aftermath.

In the Feb. 26, 1992, issue, the Eagle said that hundreds of people had signed petitions already for bingo as a means of raising money for fire departments and other charities. The Jasper VFW and the Elks Lodge were among those that had come out in favor. Charles Tipton of the United Mine Workers came out in favor of it, as long as the charities had existed for five years and non-profit groups were the ones who benefited, adding that retirees and locals could get funds. (He later had to apologize for giving the impression that the UMW was in favor of it, saying he was only speaking for himself.)

On March 5, it was noted by Eagle writer John Sandlin that state Rep. Johnny Cagle, D-Nauvoo, who had defeated Ed Frazier earlier to gain that seat, was sponsoring the bills. A major supporter of bingo, T. Wayne Bright, brought the legal ad to the Eagle that was necessary to run the bills.

Cagle said he had received no negative response to the bills and that it would "help a lot of schools in trouble." He expected it to pass through after a tax reform package was passed.

"I've got petitions from hundreds of people who want the right to vote. There's been an overwhelming response from organizations, and it's the same thing as tax reform. It's ultimately up to the people," Cagle said. "I'm sure there are some people opposed and I say, 'If you are opposed, vote against it or campaign against it.'"

Cagle said there are safeguards written in the bills "so people can't come into Walker County and take advantage " of legalized bingo, Sandlin wrote. Groups would have to be non-profit and in existence locally for at least five years before they could operate games.

Sandlin noted, "Several volunteer and fraternal groups have operated low-key bingo games to raise funds over the years in Walker county, either as traditional bingo or virtually the same game under a different name."

It is interesting no one in the stories talks about electronic games being proposed from the bills. In fact, on March 10, there was a story about Jasper police cracking down on video poker machines.

It appears at least on the surface the Walker County Commission, which had all different members then, had little to do with the effort. Frazier came one day to a meeting thinking there was to be a hearing, but commissioners said they had no received petitions and had no hearing scheduled. I think that was the only time the commissioners had any record in the paper of discussing it in a meeting.

Meanwhile, then-state Sen. Bob Wilson Jr. had nothing to say about it at the time. State Rep. Tom Hogan, who held Tommy Sherer's seat at the time, only reluctantly supported the bills, saying he could not block them only because of wide support.

"I don't think bingo is the way to go, but I'm not going to stop the veterans from having a chance to vote on it. There's a lot of members who appear to favor bingo," Hogan said.

It was not until the end of the session that the bingo bills were passed -- four of them. It turns out that two bills set up a Jasper Bingo Authority and a Walker County Bingo Authority, according to a May 21 report. I just realized that, and don't know if Gov. Guy Hunt signed them, as Hunt was studying them at the time. Obviously, he signed bills to set up a vote that November. There was later talk about how the act would set up a bingo committee to make sure caps on jackpots, set by the Legislature, would be followed.

The bills first passed the House. Wilson signed the measures out of the Local Legislation Committee in the last hours of the session. He told Sandlin the four bills then went on the Senate general calendar because of a legislative rule that makes any bill regarding lotteries or games of chance a general bill regardless of its local application.

"Wilson asked for the bills to be handled out of order and the Senate passed the measures before the legislative clock died," Sandlin said.

By the Nov. 3 vote, there had been a number of ads, particularly from Rev. Delmus Anthony of New Prospect Baptist Church, that worried about the proposal opening up other gambling in the county. Dr. Michael Adams of First Baptist Church (of Jasper, I presume) also opposed it.

The ballot allowed "legalizing the operation of bingo games for prizes or money by certain non-profit organizations for charitable or educational purposes...when all the requirements of Amendment 425 to the state constitution are fulfilled." Jasper voters got to vote on their proposal and the county's bingo amendment as well.

VFW leaders said 30 percent of the proceeds would go to charity causes, while 50 percent would be paid to player winnings and 20 percent would go for overhead. It was noted by Sandlin that "heat from authorities over bingo conducted by AMVETS at a building just across the Warrior River brought an end in 1984 to games conducted by the Jasper VFW post and police shut down both the VFW and the Elks when they tried to resume games last year (1991), the VFW leaders said."

Post 4850 Commander John Grimes told Sandlin that he disagreed with the stand by church leaders.

""I don't want to get into a fight with the church. The church has it's place," he said. "But bingo is bingo and I don't understand how they can say it's going to lead someone to do something else, unless they think it's going to make him go somewhere else to bet on dogs."

Meanwhile, Sandlin said Cagle was now distancing himself from a growing fray, saying he was not backing one side or another but only trying to give people the right to vote on the issue. He did say that the bills were drawn up based on bills used in Gadsden, where games were being conducted without problems.

Again, none of the articles were describing whether electronic bingo was part of the deal, and it would seem it pointed only to regular bingo when the headline on Nov. 4 referred to VFW leaders "dusting off their bingo balls" after they won the referendums the day before. The vote outside Jasper was 14,016 in favor to 11,417 against. Inside Jasper it passed 13,065 to 11,694.

Adams told Sandlin he was not persuaded on arguments that the gambling aspect of bingo would not eventually lead to big business controlling the games, based on what he had seen in other communities.

Grimes responded that the wording of the legislation would prevent that from happening since only non-profit charitable groups which had been around for 60 months could operate the games.

Well, we all know how that ended, don't we?