From AL.com:

Gov. Bob Riley threw his support Wednesday behind a bill that would prohibit any statewide elected official or member of the Legislature from working as a state employee or public education employee.

The legislation was introduced by Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, and Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale.

The proposal also would bar elected state officials from contracting for work with a state agency or public educational institution.

“Double dipping represents an obvious conflict of interest and should be abolished,” Riley said. “Under our proposal, double dipping will end - period. It applies across state government and prohibits elected state officials from holding a second job with a government entity.”

Nearly one of every four Alabama lawmakers has a paid job in the Legislature and another position in state government or public education.

Obviously Paul Hubbert, head of the Alabama Educators Mafia Association, will oppose this because it would hurt his ability to purchase legislators.  While I’m all for putting a crimp in Hubbert’s payoff pipeline, I think this is a bad bill.  There are instances where a person who already works as a state employee should be able to keep their job after becoming a legislator.

I think the bills sponsored by Rep. Mike Ball and Sen. Arthur Orr are a better way to deal with double dippers.  Their bill would force all double dippers to disclose all financial ties to the state on a state website.  That would let the voters decide when a legislator has crossed the ethical line.

• Dueling op-eds from Byrne and Hubbert
• I kind of hate having good legislators
• Ken Guin is a real piece of
• Double Dipping Bill DOA
• School board disallows double dipping

This entry was posted by Brian on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 5:16 am and is filed under Alabama, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.