SPEECH delivered at March 7, 2003, public meeting with Governor’s Commission on Constitution Reform
Speaker: Sid Martin
My name is Sid Martin and I’m a former Blount County Commissioner where I served for five and a half years.
That period of time was a real eye-opener for me. I remember studying Alabama history. It made me understand a lot more about the state constitution and why it was written as it was. Back then, all counties were under Home Rule and were either bankrupt or on the verge of it. I predict that if the state constitution is rewritten and Home Rule is again instituted it will be less than five years until we will be right back in the same predicament we were in 1901.
Speaking from experience, in most Rural Counties the caliber of people elected to the position of County Commissioner are not up to handling that kind of power and responsibility. They don’t get involved enough in the budget-making process. It’s too easy for them to be manipulated by power-hungry bureaucrats. That’s not saying that all County Commissioners are alike, but it’s very rare that we have a majority of capable people at the same time. Right now, Blount County has a majority of County Commissioners that seem to think for themselves, but two years from now we may get back in the same old rut that we have been in most of my life in Blount County.
I have been hearing some of the legislators remarking that they are for “limited home rule.” That is also a dangerous thing for this state. While I was a Commissioner in 1991, we had a taste of “limited home rule.”
This is what happened: The Commissioners voted 3 to 1 to ask the Legislature to pass a bill for two cents per gallon tax on gas and fuel (I voted against it) and 1% sales tax. The bill passed unanimous and came back to the Blount County Commission for a vote whether to have it become law right then or to let the people vote on it. My motion to let the people vote yes or no died for lack of a second. The Commission voted 2 yes and 1 no, the other Commissioner was absent. So you see, just 2 men passed that bill. My position on that was that too much money was being wasted on things that should not have been. None of those Commissioners were reelected.
I think all taxes, laws and public offices should be voted on by the people. All people elected to public office need to be held accountable for their actions.
In my opinion, the people that want to rewrite the constitution want to take away more of our freedom, so that the bureaucrats can pass laws and tax us as they see fit.
Our constitutions, both state and federal, were written with this in mind: Of the people, by the people and for the people. When you change that, this country is doomed.
I hope and pray that this Commission is open-minded and hears everything said by all the people of this state.
Thank you.
SPEECH delivered at March 7, 2003, public meeting with Governor’s Commission on Constitution Reform
Speaker: James Rhodes
My name is James Rhodes, I’m a resident of Cullman County. I’ve never witnessed any harm coming to this state because of an old, outdated constitution as some people claim.
Just a couple of questions for the Commission here: do you believe that all segments of Alabama society are represented on this Commission? Who among you represent the Farmers, Ranchers and the working class such as Carpenters, Bricklayers or Steelworkers?
Since you were not elected to this Commission there is no way the people of this state can vote you off the Commission. They can reject your recommendations.
I believe that the only purpose for which this Commission was appointed was to find a way to raise taxes. I know this Commission contains a majority of ACCR members! Attorneys and Educators do not represent the people of Alabama. Today the cost of taxes in the United States is more than the cost of housing, food and clothing combined. How much is enough? Allow me to invite those of you who think taxes are too low to go home tonight, sit down and write a check to the state treasury. I believe they will accept it. However, this is not the most important issue on my mind today.
I come here today to speak against home rule. I expect my words to be heard but I sincerely doubt you will heed what my concerns are. Recently the City Council in Cullman and the County Commission contracted with a company in Birmingham to write a Comprehensive Plan for the city and county. This plan, titled OUTLOOK 21, cost the taxpayers of Cullman County thousands of dollars, and if adopted would severely restrict the private property rights of every citizen living there. To say the least, this plan was nothing short of socialism. The City Council has the right to adopt and enforce the plan if they want to, however they face a lot of opposition to it and have not adopted it. The County Commission does not have the power to adopt it for the county because they do not have home rule. Any person running for office that supports such a plan, in my opinion would be soundly defeated.
If this plan had been adopted by a majority of two out of three men on our County Commission it could have been adopted and enforced on thousands of people who do not want this type of restrictions on their property. Thank God the county does not have home rule.
If it was adopted, new laws would have to be passed. a zoning board would have to be appointed, they would have to go or send someone to every piece of property to make a decision on how that property should be zoned. Do we not have all the state and county employees that we can afford to pay, not to mention the fringe benefits and retirement pay they would be entitled to?
I have gone before an appointed board before to protest a tax raise on some of my property. I wasted my time and theirs. I do not believe a zoning board that was appointed would be any more sympathetic to the concerns of any citizen, unless he was a friend of some of those on the board. There is too much of that going on now, and that is not the way I want my concerns considered.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we, as citizens of the United States of America, have certain rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. That document has stood the test of time and is very relevant today. Our national Constitution is well over two hundred years old, much older than the Alabama Constitution. Would you want to rewrite the nation’s Constitution, ladies and gentlemen?
I sincerely believe our nation was founded by men of wisdom and faith and they were guided by almighty God. To me there is no other way the Founding Fathers could have had the foresight to write that document. I sincerely doubt that this Commission set about its task because of divine guidance. As I look at this Commission today, I see no one, in my opinion, that vaguely resembles a Founding Father.
I personally will do all that I can to help defeat any amendment to our constitution that allows home rule to the counties. Folks, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Leave our constitution alone. I doubt that ever in the history of man have so few attempted to hose so many in such a short time frame.
Thank you.
SPEECH delivered at March 7, 2003, public meeting with Governor’s Commission on Constitution Reform
Speaker: Mary Rhodes
I am Mary Rhodes from Cullman County. I feel like I am representative of the majority of Alabamians of the working sector. I feel like the main purpose of reform of our 1901 Constitution is to place ways in order to add more taxes on the people of Alabama, as well as to give home rule to the commissioners of the counties. This will give the commissioners more authority in order to place zoning restrictions on our property. I pay for my property and pay the taxes on this property every year, that is reappraised every few years in order to raise those taxes., and I don’t want anyone else to be able to come tell me what I can and cannot do with something they have not paid for and are not paying taxes on.
I hear it mentioned often that the property taxes in Alabama are among the lowest in the United States, but I never hear them mention anything about our pay scale is also among the lowest in the United States. It doesn’t take a college degree to realize if you are on the lowest pay scale you can’t be one of the states with the highest property tax. It only takes a little common sense.
I heard Jim Bennett on a radio talk show this week make the remark that Bob Riley said that when this constitution was written there were carpetbaggers in the court houses. I would like to inform you and Gov. Riley, they are still there.
If our constitution has become such an unworkable instrument, to me that is not a very good reflection on the people that have been sent to Montgomery for over a hundred years. I think the biggest problem is that they have lost contact with the average people in our state. There is something going on that just don’t make sense to me. When someone spends over $200,000.00 to get elected to a part-time job that will not pay that much in the four years he is there, there surely must be more financial gain other than his salary.
My husband and I retired over two years ago. We do not have the income we did when we worked. We knew that when we retired. Do we still spend the same as we did when working? No. Why? Because we would not survive. Are we asking too much of our elected people in Montgomery to find the waste and pork that can be done away with? Be as conservative with our tax money as we have to be with our income? After all, this is not their money, it is ours. What we need is accountability from our representatives.
In the constitution, Article XVIII, Section 285, on the ballots at each election it states that each proposed amendment shall be so printed that the nature thereof shall be clearly indicated. In the amendment concerning the constitution convention in the last election it was worded in such a way that you did not know if no meant yes or yes meant no. I believe this was done in order to confuse the voters, so they did not know which way they were voting. Amendments should be written so voters know yes means yes and no means no.
I must say that I have more trust and confidence in the men who wrote the 1901 Constitution than the ones who will be working on the reform now. I do not believe the majority of Alabama people will be represented in this Commission. I don’t want my rights and freedoms that I have today to be taken away, and I believe that if each expenditure was looked at closely there would be a lot of money that is being spent unnecessarily that has nothing to do with what our state is supposed to be involved with. I know there are several expenditures in the education budget that has nothing to do with educating the children of Alabama.
Thank you.
SPEECH delivered at March 7, 2003, public meeting with Governor’s Commission on Constitution Reform
Speaker: Jerry Moyers
My name is Jerald T. Moyers. I am a 69-year-old, retired citizen of Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama. I am a 1959 graduate of THE ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. My wife and I have 8 children, 27 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Although all do not reside in Alabama, it is on their behalf that I address you today.
Proponents of changing the Alabama Constitution, by rewrite, charge that the document is archaic, that is, outdated, and, therefore, obviously requires a total rewrite. I have two comments in that regard:
There are presently Alabama State Senators and Representatives who whine about the vastness (size) of the current document - how difficult it is to carry and to use. Has anyone ever noted a member of the Legislature carrying the document to a Legislative Session? Not likely, as copies of the Constitution are in libraries, on the Internet, on compact disk, and so forth. Even if it were it necessary for Legislators to actually carry a copy of the document here or there, I would have no sympathy. The copy of GOD's Holy Word, the Bible, that I carry virtually every Wednesday and usually twice on Sunday, contains 1,865 pages, and I don't consider it unmanageable or awkward.
The average Alabama citizen is not calling for a rewrite. Special Interest Groups and proponents of totalitarian government are using subterfuge. They are misleading Alabama citizens with such baseless claims that racism, white supremacy, and other outdated claims abound in the present document. The cry, rewrite, by these groups is in order to be able NOT to write into a new Constitution the unalienable rights, freedoms and privileges guaranteed by present document. This subterfuge would allow those Special Interest Groups to usurp most, if not all, of our GOD-given rights. These groups are already at work, they can't wait for a rewritten constitution in order for their agenda to be put into effect.
The 1901 Constitution, in Article 1, guarantees the citizens of Alabama thirty-six rights, which is twenty-six more than the U.S. Constitution! It is apparent that these rights are not considered to be appropriate by certain members of the Legislature! During the 2001 session of the Legislature, HB45 passed the House. This bill, had it passed the Senate and been ratified in a general election, would have eliminated fourteen of these 36 citizen rights. If a general election would have been required for ratification, then the citizens would vote it down, correct? Not necessarily! Politicians have a unique penchant for creating verbage which is confusing at best and totally misleading at worst - added to which is the travesty inflicted on Alabama citizens by the unbridled, money-hungry Department of Education. The Constitution of Alabama is not taught in public schools today! How then is one to make an intelligent choice on a subject about which they have no knowledge?
Another special interest group, led by Representative Jack Veneble was able to successfully get a bill passed by the House that would leave out of Article 1, the existing Section 35, entitled: "Objective of government," which states: "The sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression."
How, then, are we, the citizens of Alabama, present and future, to ward off this effort to make us serfs to the totalitarian state? As a matter of fact, there is a great lesson to be learned from the recompiled Bible. At one time it was difficult to manage, that is, to follow, because at the times that GOD ordained that HIS Word be written down, there was no type of punctuation in existence, nor was there any separation of words!! Later, in GOD's own time, and through HIS guidance, the Bible was, in effect, recompiled. It was divided into individual words, Books, Chapters and Verses, making it the Bible many of us know today. What has the Bible to do with the Alabama Constitution, you ask? In 2001, the State, under HJR88 completed the task of recompiling the Alabama Constitution - seemingly a closely guarded secret - by the rewrite proponents. Why? Under HJR88, the amendments that were outdated were removed; amendments that pertain to particular locations were alphabetized for easy reference. This resulted in an unencumbered and updated Constitution at a fraction of its original size, now 161 pages, and at a fraction of the cost of a rewrite because IT IS ALREADY PAID FOR! A rewrite, which could destroy the rights of Alabama Citizens, present and future, and could end up costing these same citizens untold millions of dollars, is absolutely unnecessary! All that remains is to vote this recompilation into law!
THANK YOU
SPEECH delivered at March 7, 2003, public meeting with Governor’s Commission on Constitution Reform
Speaker: Pat Moyers
Hello. My name is Pat Moyers from Huntsville, Alabama, and I am glad to be here today.
I am opposed to the current movement to rewrite our state constitution. Powerful special interests like the trial lawyers and the teacher's unions would dominate the process. They have no problem using the power of government to enrich themselves, and rewriting the constitution would be an irresistible opportunity for them to line their own pockets with our hard-earned money.
Dangers of a Rewrite
In the current political climate, the chances are great that, rather than improving the constitution, a rewrite would make it worse. Restrictions on government would be loosened, taxes would be increased, and individual liberty would be diminished. The rewrite proposals that have been advanced in the legislature have started out by gutting the Alabama Constitution's Declaration of Rights and granting more power to government, such as by expanding eminent domain authority to allow land to be taken from its rightful owners and given to private businesses.
The increasing attention to the constitution has awakened the interests of some conservative groups that are mobilizing against a revision of the document. In the most recent edition of Alabama Citizens Watch, the state chapter of the Christian Coalition warns that a constitutional rewrite likely would lead to higher taxes and more gambling.
The Association for Judeo-Christian Values kicked off a series of educational seminars around the state. These were intended to educate voters on what the group believes to be the underlying motives of reformers: increasing taxes, legalizing gambling, stripping citizens of rights and even paving the way for a United Nations takeover of the state. And I have read of plans to remove the boundaries of our state!
There are forces attempting to overthrow government as we know it in the great State of Alabama. We have been subjected to newspaper editorial after newspaper editorial designed to whip up the masses into a frenzy for a new constitution in Alabama. It is interesting that proponents of the new constitution are, to an individual, protectors of the poor. None of the visible proponents are themselves poor, but most are rather quite wealthy. Constitutions, unlike editorial opinions, should be sacred.
The tax reformers have been very busy in Alabama creating a "grassroots" movement for constitutional reform. They see the Alabama constitution of 1901 as a major impediment to higher taxes and bigger government. Since the masses had no inclination toward tinkering with the constitution, they have formed "grassroots" organizations from the top down, such as Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, and churned out endless editorials urging a new constitution.
No matter where one stands relative to tax reform, it is hard to believe that any free people would abandon principles of freedom and notions of government that have been with us since the American Revolution. Yet this is the very proposition which we citizens of Alabama now face.
Special interest groups such as the gambling interest are already carving out their territory. Do you believe a new constitution would contain language to prohibit casino gambling? What would be the impact on our courts if all current legal precedent were erased and each phrase, word, or even syllable of a new constitution had to be litigated? Trial lawyers see this as a great opportunity.
In summary, I am opposed to a rewrite of our state constitution!
Thank you.
SPEECH delivered at March 7, 2003, public meeting with Governor’s Commission on Constitution Reform
Speaker: Mary Ann Crum
Good morning. Well, I guess I should say "Good afternoon" since it is after twelve o clock.
I am MaryAnn Crum from Holly Pond in Cullman County and I have come here to voice my very strong objection to ANY rewriting of the 1901 Alabama Constitution. I am concerned about all the topics but I am limited in time.
One item I am extremely concerned about is what has been called "Home Rule."
"Home Rule" as the Founding Fathers and the citizens of their time established, and is stated in Article I, Section 2 of the Alabama Constitution that: "ALL political power is inherent in the people and ALL free governments are founded on their authority."
All planning boards and zoning boards, the state board of education, as well as many other agencies and the over-bulging, ever-growing bureaucracies are all OUTSIDE that constitutional right of the people. These entities are controlling and consuming the citizens to our detriment and our children's.
The average citizen understands "Home Rule" to mean local government is controlled by the citizen in their locale, and that certainly is as it should be. HOWEVER, to those who want to control, it means local government is controlled by elected public servants or appointed boards not accountable to the voters. The power to tax and zone property is any government s delight!
We have a form of "Home Rule" in Cullman County. Because the city government had been given the power to raise the sales tax without the vote of the citizens, this was played on the county a few years ago. Thanks to both the city and county government elected public servants and the legislators, the political power inherent in the people, has been taken away from the citizens in the county and given to city and county government public servants with the power to tax without the vote of the citizens.
"Comprehensive Plans," many with fancy names, are popping up like popcorn all across Alabama and recently reared its ugly head in Cullman as "Outlook XXI."
These plans are nothing but a power grab for county zoning to control privately owned property and the power to tax the citizens to accomplish these ambiguous plans at property owners and taxpayers expense and demise.
Within these plans are the tenets of "Home Rule," deceptively presented to the citizens from the onstart -- continuing to the very end.
I would like to believe Governor Riley has good intentions and means well, but I m not sure that he understands the full ramifications of "Home Rule."
I tremble, as does anyone in this state who understands our God given unalienable rights and loves freedom and liberty, any time the legislators are in session. Representative Jack Venable's five (5) bills in 2001 to rewrite the Alabama Constitution is a shining example to fear the "good ol" boys going to Montgomery.
If the Governor wants to help the state, the citizens of Alabama would be better served if the legislators stayed home till the next election, even paying them their base pay to do so!
We are all familiar with "When all else fails, read the manual!" Our Constitution isn t broke, it just hasn t been followed and we DO NOT have statesmen who care about our God given rights, but we have politicians and bureaucracies that are feeding off the citizens to satisfy their greed for money, power and control.
And a couple of points in other areas:
Thank you.
Blount County
Former County Commissioner
Cullman County
Cullman County
Madison County
Madison County
Cullman County
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