Another proposal to rewrite Alabama's Constitution

This year's proposal to rewrite the Alabama Constitution to remove the racist language, allow counties possess home rule self-governance, ability to legislate local taxation for adequate funds for individual school districts.  Alabama State House Representative Demetrius Newton of Birmingham has proposed a bill calling for a draft rewriting the Alabama Constitution.  However, GOP reps like Paul DeMarco is already deterring this bill instead calling for an article-by-article rewrite of the constitution.

As always, the Republicans and Dixiecrats are the ones calling for an alternative they never put any action behind.  I'm so tired of this bullshit with them and the Alabama Constitution.  It's inherently racist, perpetuates class stratification, and centralizes power in the state capitol ironically in a state where the motto is so individualistic and localized.  However, the state charter does the exact opposite of this encapsulating all authority there in Montgomery with the Alabama Legislature.    

Oh why o why?

Last week the Calhoun County Commission voted to demolish abandoned structures on the campus of former  Fort McClellan.  Get this these buildings have significant historical status, but Calhoun County officials feels that they are so dangerous that anyone going into them could get hurt.  Uh, I used to work for the state of Alabama and one of the things I used to do is go on to the campus all the time, yet noticed that the campus has much potential to be something great and conductive for future growth for the Anniston area particularly the City of Anniston.  McClellan could easily be incorporated into the urban infrastructure of Anniston and help Anniston set standards for that would be allow for more sustainable growth and development.  Also there are a number of bus shelters there that could be incorporated into the Anniston Citizens Transit System (ACTS). 

However, the campus was forcefully de-annexed from Anniston because of legal technicality specifying that Calhoun County, not Anniston would have zoning and land-use authority over the campus of Fort McClellan, which effectively has no zoning or land-use authority thanks to the inadequate Alabama Constitution.  Now there is suppose to be a commission that is made up of officials from Calhoun County Commission, the City of Anniston, state legislators, and congressional representative to issues recommendations for the future of the McClellan campus, but these recommendation practically have zero legal standing when it come to developers.  Calhoun is one of the 64 counties in Alabama that lacks home rule or self-govern authority over zoning, taxation, or land-usage.  Anybody can practically do anything they want as long as it falls within legal standards of state code on building and land-usage.  

Well, I for one think that Calhoun County Commission inability to find alternative solution to the problem with these structures is another symptom to Alabama's inability to progress under its lame state charter.  It is debatable who could or would be the better operator of the Fort McClellan campus, but the fact that one has land-usage authority and the other doesn't does matter.  Until somebody can get land-use and zoning authority to Calhoun County then more shortsighted decisions will be made on things involving McClellan area and its historically and developmentally-speaking sustainable layout.  What a shame!

Constitutional reform and the gubernatorial race

As mentioned last week, Congressman and Alabama Democratic gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis announced while in Huntsville his support for a full rewrite of Alabama's inadequate, racially-bias consitution.  It's obvious that his Democratic opponent and Alabama Agricultural Commissioner, Ron Sparks, wasn't down with that.  Sparks called Davis' announcement "smoke and mirrors".

Well, it became very obvious to me after listening to Sparks and his stance on the reform that all he really cares about is "doing as little as possible and not rocking the boat" of special interests like ALFA.  Also Sparks platform on economic develop is full of holes with the idea of placing casinos in urban centers across the state lik downtown Birmingham like that is cure-all to the economic ailments. 

Back to the constitutional reform, the Birmingham News printed an op-ed in its Sunday edition discussing how Davis' announcement may actually elevate the level of discussion.  Alabama Citizen for Constitutional Reform's chairwoman Lenora Pate said it best:

 "It's just amazing, isn't it, that (candidates) want to trust the people and ask them to vote for them, but they don't want to trust us to vote on this issue," she said. "Something is inherently inconsistent with that."

However, remember Sparks and all the 7 Republican gubernatorial contenders feels like Davis is just doing a irresponsible magical routine involving "smoke and mirrors".  Those in Montgomery thinks it A'OK because their complacency on this is over the power they have on our lives and basic things when it should be held in the hands of our local governments. Honestly, I believe a lot of the state's major economic developmental issues would be resolved with a home rule law that allows all county or municipal governmental entities decide for themselves on zoning and land-use issues. I guess us the voters are just wise enough to vote for them, but not wise enough to vote on the solution to the problem they created. 

The more I learn about the candidates, the more I do lean towards Davis' platform because I'm tired of complacency amongst our elected officials.