Gary Palmer: The Other message of the September 18 amendment vote

  The voters of Alabama have spoken and decided to give Alabama’s elected officials more time to sort out the reforms needed to put Alabama’s fiscal house in order. The message from the proponents of the September 18 constitutional amendment was this: taking $437.4 million ($145.8 million per year for three years) out of the ATF and cutting by more than half the oil and gas royalties that flow into the ATF was the only way to avoid certain calamity in the state of Alabama. By outspending opponents of the amendment by a factor of ten, that message was heard loud and clear.

  But that was not the only message from this vote. The way some key Republican leaders in the Alabama Legislature are interpreting the vote, the people of Alabama didn’t just vote to give the legislature more money to avert a budget crisis, they voted to give the legislature an opportunity to make sensible budget reforms instead of forcing across-the-board cuts had the amendment failed.

Our Stand: The only option

  Alabama voters are being presented with a choice to be voted upon September 18, but an honest assessment of the amendment which would transfer nearly half a billion dollars from a state trust fund to shore up the state’s operating budget reveals there is only one viable option. It’s a do-or-die scenario.

  Lawmakers want to borrow $437 million from the Alabama Trust Fund – a savings account resting on royalties from the state’s oil and gas reserves – to temporarily bandage a gaping wound in the General Fund, the state’s main operating budget. The Alabama Legislature failed to solve the issue – one that stems all the way back to Bob Riley’s tenure as governor – so voters will be forced to approve the measure or trust that the legislature can go back into session and pass a viable alternative before the clock runs out October 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

  Though many voters are justifiably concerned about shifting these dollars around, they should be more worried about how the legislature would respond if we fail to approve the measure. The problem has lingered for years, and during the last regular session, our lawmakers failed to act again. Why trust them now, especially when they’ll only have 12 days to remedy the problem should the referendum fail?