Alabama Gov needs to cut everything 10-18%, including education,

[AP]

by Oct 1st because the progressive tax bill didn't pass.

Will someone remind me what the argument made by Alabama DU'ers was about how the tax bill SHOULDN'T pass because it was going to hurt education?

Apparently, because the bill didn't pass, Alabama now has to buy fewer school books, get rid of technology in the class room, and fire teachers because they didn't have the money.

They also said they were going to have to do fewer health inspections at restaurants (I once heard an executive of a chain restaurant company say that the SINGLE HARDEST thing to do in business is to get food preparers to care about the cleanliness of food that they aren't eating) and they're going to get rid of night patrols by the state police.

[ShaneGR]

1. SLASH AND BURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love it. Sometimes you have to drop a brick on someones head to get them to understand the truth.

Drop the brick!

[el_gato]

3. I agree sgr2

If these people don't want civil society then let's have at it.

[underpants]

2. The highways of Alabama are now free crime zones at night

I heard this on NPR as I was parking my car. This ANNOUNCEMENT should make things much better huh?

[CMT]

4. well to his credit the gov of Alabama

a Repuke no less tried to get his state to back a tax hike predominately on the wealthy so that programs affecting the poor and education didn't have to be cut. Of course the state voted 2-1 against it and now they will have to face the consequences.

[underpants]

7. That' true he said it was the Christian thing to do

and what did the people say after weighing their faith vs. their money?

MONEY!!!!!!!!!

And don't take this as a slam on southerners because:
a.I am one
b.The same thing would happen in a lot of places these days.

But good for him to try.

[denverbill]

5. You get what you pay for.

Alabama has one of the lowest tax rates in the country. Not coincidentally, they also have one of the poorest school systems in the country and one of the lowest per capita incomes in the country. God forbid they try to do anything about it though. Just muddle on through and for god's sake don't raise my taxes.

[gratuitous]

6. Yup, watch Alabamans die

This looks like a bad rerun of what we're currently doing in Oregon. The anti-tax airheads claim that nothing so very bad has really happened, and that now governmental agencies are having to tighten their belts and eliminate "waste" from their programs. Meanwhile, on page C6, you read about some poor devil who can't afford the medications that keep her alive and how her friends are trying to raise the pathetic sum of $1,500 to pay for her prescriptions for the next six months.

My feeling is that these people should scrape together their last twenty-five bucks, take a cab to the home of Alabama's version of Don McIntyre, and die on his front lawn so he can get an up close and personal look at the deadly and ruinous results of his policies. No sense in letting these "real world, hard truth" devotees not see the logical outcome of their advocacy.

[southpaw]

8. As an Alabamian...

I worked to stir up support for Riley's doomed tax and accountibility initiative. It was a big, ambitious package that could have turned Alabama's financial picture around, but alas, it was too easy for the opponents of progress to shoot down: TAXES BAD! VOTE NO!

I wish Riley would cut ALL funding to high school football programs statewide. The outcry would be deafening, but the ignorant red-necks would probably BEG to pay more taxes to get their football back!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Any figures on which sectors of the population

voted which way?

I would bet that it was the people in the suburbs, especially the outer suburbs, who voted no in the largest numbers.

In any case--and I proposed this in Oregon--the budget cuts should be targeted to hit those counties that voted "no" most overwhelmingly. That is, if County A voted 40% yes-60% no, its state allocations should be cut by a larger amount than those of County B, which voted 60% yes, 40% no.

[southpaw]

12. Lee County...

Home of Auburn University (my alma mater) actually voted approx 70-30 in FAVOR of the proposal! There was actually a band of counties across central AL (the "Black Belt") that came down in favor of Riley's plan.

[AP]

17. Anti-Tax Reform DUers bragged that black counties voted against

the proposal on election day (how they got reliable data on election day, I don't know).

I'm glad to hear that this wasn't the whole, true story.

[RedSox02]

14. Yes Yes! Drop football!

Don't get me wrong, I love football and realize how much it means to Alabama, but hey, they wanted their money instead! They buy into the idea that all their tax money only goes to welfare recipients. Well cutting High School fotball would certainly wake some people up!

I don't live in Alabama, so I feel bad saying this, but I almost want there to be an outcry to wake these people up. They won't scream until it is things they cherish that are gettign cut.

[AP]

18. Punish the companies that gave money to fight reform, don't punish avg.

citizen.

You punish them and make their lives miserable, the companies will just buy themselves a new campaign to blame their suffering on liberalism in some other form. They'll blame black people and immigrants before they'll blame taxes if you don't get to the root problem -- which is that big businesses so easily can buy themselves public opinion.

[AP]

16. It's hard to blame the average Alabaman. There was so much money

fighting this proposal, it was hard to have an informed opinion. And punishing the middle and working class for being swayed by the false advertising isn't the answer.

Alabama needs to make suffer the super-rich corporations who bought this suffering for the little guy. I don't know how to do that. But I'd love to know who gave money to the campaings against the against the tax bill, and I'd start by boycotting them.

[IrateCitizen]

10. Do ya think they're going to cut FOOTBALL???

Or will it be maintained at its current level at further expense of the educational cirriculum?

[Zero Gravitas]

11. Better that than rasie taxes

The Republic party has brain washed people into thinking "TAXES BAD!".

They'd rather cut everything from State Troopers to education than pay more taxes. When their homeless population triples, their kids go to classes with 80 other kids and bridges are falling down maybe then they'll wake up to the fact that sometimes paying collectively for essential services isn't so bad after all.

[walkon]

13. I was a little suspicious

about how much Riley really wanted the plan to pass and every Repug in the state worked hard against it. I voted for it but knew it was going to be soundly defeated. Now they can cut guvmint back all they want since Alabamians clearly have voted against "big guvmint".

The biggest problem with the plan was that it was supposed to be for education but did not specify any monies going to education and this was used by the opponents to push the "can't trust guvmint" button, which was all it took to defeat it. Was this built into the plan to assure its failure? I voted for it because it made the tax structure more, much more, progressive and did provide enough revenue to do the State's business including improvements in education. If it had passed I doubt the legislature would have done anything but what was outlined - but not guaranteed - by the plan.

The best line after its failure came from our Attorney General, * Federal Court nominee, William Pryor. He told Alabamians to be sure to buy guns and get alarm systems because crime would be on the rise since thousands of prisoners would have to be released due to lack of funds.

Actual budget will be out next week - or else we shut down completely.

[AP]

19. Yeah. The tone of Riley's voice in that clip made me think he

never wanted the bill to pass.

And I totally agree that they probably put the education thing in the bill to sabotage the bill.

I think the public definitely should have played Riley's bluff and pass the bill. But they probably knew from the beginning that it was never going to pass.

[kentuck]

15. Cut education ?

Ehh..they got plenty anyways...