Archive for: October 10, 2006

Stephen Colbert in Colbert County, Alabama. I’m still disappointed in them for not doing their homework on Henry White, but they scored some points with me for letting me know about one of my favorite television personalities coming to Alabama:

TUSCUMBIA (AP) — The Stephen Colbert Museum and Gift Shop held its grand opening and not-so-grand closing on the same day in the county that honored Colbert by temporarily pronouncing its name like the Comedy Central entertainer does.

The event was staged — with the full cooperation of Colbert County officials — for future episodes of the news-program parody “The Colbert Report.” […]

The entire event — like the show itself — was done tongue-in-cheek, with the premise that Colbert County was named for the show’s host, Stephen Colbert, who recently appeared at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Wish I had known. I would have gone to it. The show has not announced when the episode will air.

Yesterday I ran a post about Henry White’s fouled-up FCPA campaign finance reports. In it, I showed that White listed his largest contribution of $11,000 as coming from SECURE PAC, a PAC formed for “edler care issues.” I then showed that SECURE PAC says they only gave White a much smaller $500 contribution. He did get an $11,000 contribution to his campaign, but it was from the PAC representing the AL Farmer’s Federation, not nursing homes.

I used all these guys FCPA forms and showed that they didn’t match up. It’s clear that someone messed up, and the only person who could possibly benefit from the error is Henry White. White is a Democrat, and ALFA is tradtionally a Republican interest. It stands to reason that White wouldn’t want people to know he’s receiving money from them. Not only for the voters’ sake, but also for future contributors. If a big Democratic Party contributor sees he’s getting money from ALFA, they might not pony up. It’s the same idea as how Republican donors treat Republicans who get money from the AEA.

So the Decatur Daily read the FCPA reports too. Here’s what they had to say.

A Limestone County Elementary School principal from Athens, White received PAC contributions including $11,000 from Secure PAC, operated by Alabama Nursing Home Association lobbyist Mary Ann Holt with contributions from nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities.

There is no mention of ALFA in the article. I mean, why would they want to confirm something a politicans says? There’s also no mention that he filed his report almost a week and a half late.

An editorial in the Birmingham News yesterday made an astonishing conclusion. First, they talked up how the state was able to have record growth without raising taxes.

Campaign rhetoric? Sure. But it’s also true.

More and better-paying jobs, coupled with people spending more money on cars, groceries, clothes, electronics and the like, mean more taxes flowing into state coffers.

But then they come to the conclusion that Alabama can’t provide basic services as long as we pay the least taxes per person in the country.

Alabama can’t grow its way out of all of its problems. Despite this past year’s uncommon growth - the long-term average growth in the Education Trust Fund is 5 percent, and it’s much lower for the General Fund - many state agencies still provide only bare-bones services. That’s because what Alabama raises per person in combined state and local taxes is a little more than two-thirds of the U.S. average.

I can agree that the state government needs a sustainable source of revenue to provide services that the government exists to provide. I’m not so Libertarian that I think the state should do away with taxes — I like having roads, schools, and libraries as much as the next guy. But the claim that we must tax at a rate comparable to other states in order to provide government services is false.

Alabama’s legislature needs to alter the tax system so that it is more equitable, but it doesn’t need to raise the amount of taxes the average citizen pays. Maybe owners of timber property, which accounts for 71% of the property in Alabama, should be paying more than 2% of the total property taxes. Maybe we should end the Alcohol Beverage Control idea which has cost the state $54 million so far this year. I bet releasing all of the prisoners convicted for nonviolent drug crimes would help reduce the $373 million spent by the DOC so far this year.

In short, if the government is having trouble providing basic services, maybe they should start cutting out some nonessential services like their Neighborhood Pothead Removal Service. And if they’re short on tax money, then they need to redo the tax system instead of relying on the income taxes of poor, working families who barely make enough to live on or the sales taxes of poor working families trying to buy groceries.