The 2007-2010 legislative quadrennium came to a close last week with Republicans sponsoring, supporting and successfully passing many important and long-needed bills. Among the highlights included:
? A bill Rep. Mike Ball (R-Huntsville) carried through the House which requires the state to set up a searchable Internet database containing all government expenditures, contracts and legislative grants. This measure brings much needed transparency to state government finances, especially at a time when revenues are lagging and the need to cut waste, fraud and mismanagement is at its height.
? A measure by State Rep. Jamie Ison (R – Mobile) that limits sex offenders from residing or loitering near school bus stops, colleges and universities. State law already prohibits their presence near public schools, but the new law brings an added layer of security for our children, grandchildren and students.
? State Rep. DuWayne Bridges (R – Valley) sponsored a plan to repeal the state sales tax on groceries for those toward the bottom end of the economic scale by offering targeted rebates. The Bridges plan would have provided many families at the middle-class level and lower with returns of about $300 a year, but Democrats killed the measure because they preferred one that instead raised taxes on many individuals and families across the state.
? A successful legislative effort by State Rep. Jay Love (R – Montgomery) allows small business owners and their employees to deduct up to 150% of the amount they pay for health insurance coverage. The new law helps reduce the Medicaid rolls while providing affordable access to health insurance coverage to those who do not currently have it, and, unlike Obamacare, there is no hefty price tag to government for providing the tax cut.
But perhaps more important than what did pass during this quadrennium is what did not pass.
Four years ago, the collective Democrat leadership of the House and Senate held a much-hyped news conference to unveil what they called the “Covenant for the Future,” a laundry list of bills, proposals and initiatives they promised to pass within the first ten days of the first legislative session.
Several sessions and more than 1,400 days later, their agenda remains woefully unfulfilled, and their “Covenant” with the citizens of Alabama is irrevocably broken.
? A constitutional amendment recognizing that life is a gift from God and begins at conception died in committee because it was never acted upon by Democrats who proposed it.
? A bill to strengthen the law against nepotism in hiring, which the Democrats swore to pass, was never even introduced.
? Similarly, bills to combat illegal immigration, provide scholarships in poverty-stricken areas of the state and eliminate pork projects in state budgets, each of which were included in the Democrat “Covenant,” all died in committee or were never even introduced.
To add insult to injury, Democrats made absolutely no effort to follow through on their commitments, despite the fact that they held majorities in both houses of the Legislature, the chairmanships of every legislative committee and a majority of members on every committee.
Instead, they chose to focus their efforts on passing an unconscionable 62% legislative pay raise over strenuous Republican objections, killing every meaningful ethics reform proposal and lining their pockets with taxpayer dollars, which resulted in several Democrat lawmakers being convicted and jailed for their crimes.
It is now obvious that Democrats had no intention of passing their proposed “Covenant” bills within 10 days, 10 years or even 10,000 years. Their proposal was only smoke and mirrors to help them retain power.
Democrats have held control of the Legislature for the past 136 years, and in return we have state budgeting practices that would land accountants at large corporations in jail, a reputation for graft and corruption that rivals that of Louisiana, and a Montgomery mindset that rejects reform while embracing the status quo.
In November, voters will have a chance to send a strong message by electing a conservative, Republican majority in the Alabama House and Senate. We ask that voters allow us to change the same failed practices that have held our state back for well over a century. GOP candidates embrace conservative change and will clean up the corruption that has tarnished our Capitol. Republicans, unlike Democrats, believe that promises made should be promises kept.
The simple fact is that 136 years of Democrat control is long enough.