Alabama Background

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THE LEGISLATURE

Imagine the pictures shown in these pages as a guided tour through a unique kind of art museum. It is the Museum of Greedy Scoundrels, Lying Scalawags and Other Con-men of a More Likeable Sort. The first exhibit might well fit the last description, but this second exhibit definitely fits the first two.

The state legislature is so polluted by Special Interests it is no exaggeration to call it a Special Interests cesspool. We look at examples of three legislators that back up this claim.

The three men focused on here are not the only ones abusing their power by any means their cases, however, offer a clear picture of the problem. The Birmingham News following some good investigative reporting exposed at different times the hidden facts in each case. We begin with the most recent case.

Representative Bryant Melton-Tuscaloosa shows why discretionary funds for legislators is not a good idea. Discretionary funds are under the authority of legislators to be spent as they see fit. This fiscal year $27 million dollars have been turned over to these legislators for whatever they deem a worthy cause. The susceptibility of these allocations to abuse for personal benefit is obvious. Melton's chosen cause was a private foundation associated with the state's Fire College. At first sight these funds seem to have been spent in necessary and good ways such as $15,000 for computer software for the students of Alabama Fire College. Forty thousand dollars of the allocation was for something as worthy as scholarships for needy students in 2002. In 2003, $30,000 more dollars were provided for this worthy cause. There were several other innocent sounding expenditures listed in the budget. Behind the innocent appearance however, there was hidden $60,000-$65,000 given through the Foundation to provide a scholarship for Melton's daughter. There was nothing innocent about this; it was unethical and abusive use of the position with which the people entrusted him.

Sonny 'Locy' Baker represents the 85th District made up of Henry and Houston counties. Near his hometown of Abbeville is a Youth Detention Facility founded by Baker with more than $1.5 million of state money. If that seems harmless enough, consider that Baker's wife earns $20,000 a year as its director and his son Corey earns $17,000 a year as an instructor. Baker defends his family's employment by saying his wife is inadequately compensated for the amount of work she does. He points out, also, that his wife and son are only paid for the hours they work. How much they earn at their jobs is beside the point. The point is that they have jobs at all in a program created by the legislator himself with state taxpayers' money. The money was received by the program under four different names: the Wiregrass Leadership Academy, the Southeast Alabama Youth Leadership Academy, Camp SAYLA and SAYLA Therapeutic Resources. Using four different names for the same facility nurtures the suspicion that such creative funding was meant to hide the intended destination of the money from public view.

Gary L. Smith, head of Henry County's Republican Party, tagged Baker's project with the accurate description. The Birmingham News quoted him as saying, "I just think it is double-dipping. He's using public money to support his family." Double-dipping is the illegal practice of lawmakers getting paid state funds for some other position besides their salary as legislators. It is easy to see the reason why this would be against the law for those holding the power of state funding: they might be tempted to use some of the funds for personal enrichment. Arranging for a family member, instead of himself to be paid by the state, does not comply with the law. It is just a shameless and blatant attempt to get around it.

Leaving Rep. Baker let me introduce you to the other individual example. Say hello to Senator Hank Sanders. It was suggested that Governor Riley was something of a beginner in Special Interest pragmatism. Well, ol' Hank here is a cold-blooded veteran if there ever was one. He is capable of trying just about anything, it seems, to feather his own nest and has actually tried quite a number of things towards that end. No offense to Rep. Baker, but next to Hank he looks like a rank amateur.

On March 9, 2003, a Birmingham News investigation reported that the Selma senator had channeled state funds to five entities in his district in which he has a personal stake. These entities are non-profit, private organizations, and all five are run by Sanders' family. Since becoming Education Budget Chairman in the 1996 fiscal year, Sanders has used that powerful position to send more than $4.3 million to these groups, as of the March 9th 2003 article. Most of the money was taken from the Education Trust Fund budget which the Selma senator oversees.

Sanders listed the McRae Learning Center and the Voting Rights Museum by name in separate line items in the budget. Some years, funding for 21st Century and Black Belt Resources came from separate bills filed by Sanders that authorized state money. Sometimes money was allocated in ways that hid its destination. For instance, money went to 21st Century under a spending category called "citizenship and character and leadership education." The Voting Rights Museum got funds under the category "civic education". In such cases, state records show the money went to these organizations - more than 2 million dollars of it since 1996 - but the budget does not show it.

Money for the Sanders family organizations was traced by the Birmingham News through finance records, budget documents and agency correspondence. Here is what they found:

$2.3 million for the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement, created by Sanders' wife and run by his daughter. The group received the money for tutoring and youth leadership programs, and to purchase its headquarters in Perry County. Sanders helped the group buy county school property without bidding on it as is required when schools are sold, records show.

$1 million for the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, created by Sanders' wife. The state money was used to operate the museum and to expand into another building.

$455,382 for the McRaeGaines Leaning Center in Selma, run by Sanders' mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother. The money was used for the center's day care and private school.

$479,909 for Black Belt Human Resources Development Corp. and Coalition of Alabamians Reforming Education, education organizations created by Sanders and his wife.

Sander's self-serving helping-himself approach to your tax dollars includes a dizzying array of scandalous details and schemes over and above everything connected with the five organizations. The public funds of Alabama's citizens have been treated like pig slop in a pig trough where the pigs, if they are big enough, consider it their right to get all they can. It has gone on for a long time, and it continues.

The words of the covenant are the Ten Commandments of God. Exodus 34:28

And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

The Ten Commandments were in the Ark of the Covenant, written on stone tablets. They are the only verses that we are commanded to post in our homes (Deuteronomy 6:9). Therefore, the Ten Commandments is the most important passage of Scripture.