Two year college chancellor Bradley Byrne and AEA union boss Paul Hubbert both had op-eds published in Alabama newspapers today.  Byrne explained why double dipping is wrong and why he is trying to end it.  Hubbert doesn’t even think double dipping exists.

Hubbert’s piece is laughable and merits closer inspection.

So “double-dipping” doesn’t exist, but don’t tell that to the governor and his allies. They use the term any chance they get. It is politically powerful, whips up their base and angers voters. It is also an effective cover to deny an entire class of people from participating in the political process. Denying rights is something we are all too familiar with in Alabama.

I find this argument particularly amusing.  The federal government has had a law on the books for decades called the Hatch Act that bars all public servants from engaging in partisan political activities.  I don’t recall Hubbert leading the cause to repeal the Hatch Act for “denying rights” to that “entire class of people.”  I also don’t remember Hubbert and other Democrats decrying the Hatch Act when it appeared that Karl Rove might have run afoul of it.  Byrne’s reform does not in any way deny rights.  It simply gives double dippers the choice to pick which master they will serve.

Bradley Byrne, Gov. Riley’s hand-picked chancellor of the two-year system, is proposing to ban all community college employees from running for elected office.

Hubbert says “hand-picked chancellor” as though it were an insult.  Of course Byrne was hand-picked; he is appointed by the governor.  Maybe Hubbert thinks that appointments should be made by having a spelling contest.

Educators who serve in the Legislature and other elected bodies work hard.

I have two words for that one: Ken Guin.

In last year’s election voters knew full well what their educator/legislator did for a living and chose to send them back to Montgomery, even though misleading political attacks like “double-dipping” were regularly used against them during the campaigns. Voters just didn’t buy it.

That statement is grossly misleading, but I agree with it in principle.  Voters should be the final arbiters of what legislators should and should not be allowed to do.  But that requires that voters are informed.  Double dippers like Ken Guin gamed a system that allowed them to covertly fleece Alabama taxpayers.  It took a Pulitzer prize winning investigation by Brett Blackledge to bring the actions of the double dippers to the attention of voters.  And despite Hubbert’s claim, many of the revelations became publicly known after the most recent election.

I personally thought that legislation introduced by Rep. Mike Ball and Sen. Arthur Orr this past session was the most reasonable reform.  Their legislation would have forced all legislators to declare all financial ties to the state.  That information would have been made available for all voters on an easily accessible website.  The Democrats killed this modest reform that fostered governmental transparency.  They also killed other, more draconian reforms as well.  In the end they opted to do nothing while this cancer persists.  Byrne doesn’t have the same latitude to make changes that the legislature enjoys.  His imperfect proposal isn’t what I would like to see passed by the legislature, but it is far better than doing nothing.

Related content:

This entry was posted by Brian on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Alabama, Education. 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.