Future of our state is in your vote

On Sept. 18, one of the most important votes in the history of Alabama will be decided by the people of this state. The Southeast Sun/Daleville Sun-Courier has never taken a position politically in 31 years of publishing, but we feel the present and future well-being of our state is at stake and it is too critical for us not to let our readers know how we stand on this issue.

Originally, under the law, the Legislature in Montgomery could only spend 99 percent of the interest earned on our oil and gas reserves that go into the trust with the remaining 1 percent going to the conservation and lands division. Small changes were made over the next few years to increase the re-investment to 10 percent on the interest. We were using our money wisely, earning interest on interest already earned.

Then along came amendments 666 in 2000 and 709 in 2002. These amendments were approved, making the first moves on the capital, or principal, funds. Under the former law, only the interest on our oil and gas reserves that go into the trust could be spent but these two amendments started to chip away at the fund. Now don’t get us wrong. Amendment 702 created the Education Trust Fund Rainy Day Account , which was a good thing, but in the event funds were withdrawn for our education systems, an additional amount equal to 25 percent of the withdrawal had to be transferred from the principal in the Alabama Trust Fund to the County and Municipal Government Improvement Fund. What this fund had to do with education is beyond us except to provide another carrot for our politicians to wave in front of voters in their districts.

Don’t ever forget one rule: politicians will spend every cent we send them and come back for more to support or start new programs. Remember the tobacco settlement of the late 1990s? From 1998 until 2001, the state received $254 million and is continuing to receive funds from the big tobacco companies. Have our politicians banked this money? No. They’ve propped up Medicare, created new programs, expanded current programs and found ways to use the money to get re-elected through photo opportunities. The programs created will still require funding when the settlement ends in 2025. Where will this money come from? The taxpayer’s pockets.

Let’s look at all the ways those in charge in Montgomery have created for us to pay revenue to the state: abandoned property tax, ABC board, ad valorum tax, auto title tax, cellular phone tax, cigarette tax, corporation tax, court costs, deed record tax, driver’s license fees, financial institution excise tax, freight line tax, hazardous waste fees, inheritance tax, insurance company taxes, judicial administrative fees, leasing/rental tax, lodgings tax, manufactured home registration fee, mortgage record tax, motor vehicle license, oil and gas production tax, oil company licenses, parimutuel tax, privilege license tax, public safety-miscellaneous fees, public utilities receipts, sales and use tax, sales tax for park bonds, state securities commission, etc., etc., etc.

And that’s just for the state’s General Fund. It doesn’t include what we pay to the federal government. If you’re thinking most of these taxes don’t apply to you, think again. Nothing is free. You pay those taxes indirectly through products and services you purchase on a daily basis whether from the grocery store or the gas pump. Those costs are passed on to you through higher prices.

Why can’t the leaders of our state government learn to live within our means? Just last year the interest from the trust fund going into the state General Fund was $119 million, the second highest revenue contribution to the General Fund. Believe it or not, the largest revenue producer for the state General Fund was insurance company taxes at $243 million. What will happen if we don’t lock that money away to continue to grow interest for the state’s General Fund?

After hours of reading and re-reading SB147, the amendment we are being asked to give a “yes” or “no” vote on next Tuesday, we beg to ask the question: Are we, as voters, willing to open the door to the principle of the Alabama Trust Fund to politicians? The wording of SB147 is crafty. Authors of this bill make it sound like monies from the ATF will only be withdrawn and used through the budget year 2014-2015.

Read it closer. In Section 1, and this is the key to the whole amendment, 33 percent of the oil and gas capital payments will be taken out annually, plus 5 percent of the investments. That’s one-third of the capital and more with no provision for payback and no specified time restraint. That is a distribution that will go on and on and on. And it doesn’t start now. It robs the fund beginning with last year’s fiscal year in addition to robbing 5 percent of the interest for the previous three fiscal years.

In Section 4, a specific amount of money will be transferred to the General Fund for three consecutive fiscal years, 2012-2015, in the amount of $145,796,943 annually. For those who don’t know, Fiscal Year 2012 began on Oct. 1, 2011 so they will be taking money out of the trust retroactive for a year.

In Section 5, all laws, or parts of laws in conflict with this amendment are repealed. Repealed, for heaven’s sake! We will be opening the floodgates. The foxes will be guarding the hen house. A portion of the interest from the Alabama Trust Fund currently is divided between the Education Trust Fund Rainy Day Account and the Forever Wild Trust Fund. If the principle goes away, there will be no interest. There will be no Education Rainy Day Account. Our educational system is struggling with proration now, but this will be catastrophic for every public school in the whole state.

Additionally, the way this amendment is worded, we are giving our Legislature an open door to our future and the stability of our state revenues with no provision for payback. They will not be required to pay back one red cent. If the people of Alabama had not locked this money away years ago when Gov. Fob James created this trust and asked us to vote on it, we would not have grown all those years of interest and we’d be up to our necks broke!

We have been in a financial crisis before and asked to approve tax increases, which we denied. Guess what? The state survived. What the politicians in Montgomery are asking us to do is their job. We hired them to make tough decisions and they’ve chosen to throw it back in our laps. If this amendment is rejected, Gov. Robert Bentley will have to call a special session and force the Legislature to do the job we hired them to do, or do across the board cuts, which isn’t fair to the good programs.

Our budgeting system is broke. We need reform and conservative budgeting, not a bailout that will leave us in even more wretched shape than we’re in now. We need the state and federal government to stop trying to be everything to everybody and use our money wisely. This is not a Republican or Democratic problem; this is our problem.

A copy of the amendment is on Page 6A of today’s paper. Read it and decide what you think is the right thing to do.

We support a NO vote on this amendment as it is written.