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A New Constitution Could Be Dangerous

There is a bottom line in the call for a new Alabama Constitution. Dr. Wayne Flynt and others who have spent countless hours and literally millions of taxpayer dollars promoting this notion have a simple two item agenda.

First, they insist that property taxes are too low and the reason is clear: The people have the final say on whether or not to raise them. A rewrite of the Constitution would surely remove the requirement of a vote of the people to raise taxes on real estate and certain personal property.

Second, they believe that county governments should have unbridled authority to raise taxes and control the use of rural land through zoning. To soften the impact of giving county commissions this expansion of power, they coined the phrase "home rule," which really means nothing more than absolute power to tax, regulate and control. A new Constitution would without doubt give commissions this power.

As an aside, 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 utopia.

Does the Alabama Constitution need a little housekeeping? Yes, and that process is under way. A group of responsible legislators is looking at a plan to offer amendments to the Constitution that would remove obsolete language, and combine or clean up existing provisions.

Also, the format could be changed to make the document easier to access. For example, all local amendments could be in one section and arranged alphabetically by county. This-one-step-at-a-time approach would allow the voters to view the process with full disclosure, and vote on clear, well defined issues. Any attempt to rewrite the entire document and present it to the people as a whole would invite demagoguery and deceit, and the public would be asked to vote without the foggiest idea of the content.

We do not need to buy the empty arguments of those who worship at the altar of big government. The last thing we need is a constitutional convention or, even worse, giving the Montgomery politicians the power to rewrite the entire constitution in one sitting.

(Former State Rep.) Larry Sims
Eastaboga