Ditto on the Iron Bowl bribery
Posted by BrianRead Steve’s post to get a flavor of how I feel about the Tigers and Tide doling out free Iron Bowl (and other) tickets and parking passes to legislators and other government officials throughout the state.
I was half joking when the story first broke about auditing the tax returns of recipients of the tickets, but I’m thinking that may be just what the public needs to call for. I would bet a Tide-y amount of money that a large portion of the various politicians and bureaucrats didn’t list the tickets or parking passes as income, which they are since they have value. I also wonder how the federal and state income tax auditors would value the tickets since they can’t be purchased by us common folk without first contributing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to the school’s athletic fundraising group.
For the record, the chairman of the utterly useless Alabama Ethics Commission says the ticket give aways don’t violate ethics laws.
Ethics Commission Director Jim Sumner said under the law universities and other organizations may give away tickets to sporting and other entertainment events without penalty and without reporting it.
“As long as it’s not of continuous nature such as giving season passes, they’re at liberty to invite members of the State Legislature to these events,” he said.
Maybe Sumner and I have differing definitions of “continuous nature.” If the universities give all those tickets and parking passes away every year it seems quite continuous in nature to me. I wonder if Sumner gets tickets?
Sumner was quoted in the Birmingham News sounding a little more critical of the gifts.
The Ethics Commission says there’s nothing illegal about the free tickets. “I’m not saying it’s the right thing,” said Jim Sumner, the commission’s director and a former lobbyist for the University of Alabama. “But it’s the way it’s always been done.”
Seriously. Sumner justifies the bribes by saying that “it’s always been done” that way. He admits it’s not the “right thing,” which I presume means it’s the “wrong thing.” So Sumner is saying that doing the wrong thing is OK because that is how we’ve always done it. And he’s leading our ethics commission.
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December 2nd, 2007 at 10:04 am
I believe that Jim Sumner would like to do something about it, but he is bound to follow the weak ethics law. The ethics law is greatly in need of serious reform, with some real enforcement power given to the ethics commission.
I suspect Alvin’s public disclosure of his alleged slight by Auburn University is part of a much broader political strategy.
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:45 pm
You could be right on the second part, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is unethical (whatever the sorry law currently says) for the universities to hand out gobs of tickets to the hottest event in the state to government officials.
So, did you enjoy the game.
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I thought the game was a bit surreal, like being sent back to the ’60s: 3 yards & a cloud of dust. I gave the tickets away, ’cause I’d rather watch it at home. And yes, the Universities should send an invoice to officials who want tickets.
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:21 am
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December 3rd, 2007 at 11:59 am
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