Paul Davis: Isn't state GOP Chair double-dipping too?

The biggest battle in Montgomery right now is supposed to be conflict between Republican Gov. Bob Riley and the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature. But that’s not the case at the moment.

Seems a proposal to raise the cost of health insurance for state employees and teachers just a teeny little bit is touching off a firestorm — at least between State Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard of Auburn and the Alabama Education Association. And AEA is just plain livid over Hubbard’s bill designed to stop educators from serving in the
legislature.

I join with both sides in at least a portion of the debate. Here’s what the fight is all about:

A bill currently trying to inch its way through the Alabama Legislature would raise the monthly amount paid by each teacher or state employee, non-smoker, to $25 per month, for single coverage. They now pay less than the cost of a latte at Starbucks, $2 per month. Family coverage would go from $134 to $159 per month.

How would you like to get insurance at those rates?

Private sector employees pay an average of $60 for individual coverage and $279 for family coverage.

AEA says that’s way too much of an increase, especially in a year when teachers aren’t getting a pay raise. For teachers and state employees, it is the equivalent of a pay cut, AEA contends.

Take another look. Since 1999, the cost of the insurance for state workers and teachers has risen from $449 million to $1.25 billion.

The increase is almost 200 percent. I agree with Rep. Hubbard that teachers and state workers should come up with the increases without complaint.

But there is no more powerful political organization in the state than the Alabama Education Association. The statehouse has an overdose of officials the governor describes as “double dippers.” They eat twice at the public trough with their elected position and their alliances with education. Lots of them are going to jail. Just last week another legislator was convicted for getting thousands of dollars from a do-nothing job, while on the payroll of the Alabama House of Representatives.

Now, enter the big guns from the AEA. Its leaders are contending in a story that dominated half of the front page of the Alabama School Journal that their chief adversary, Hubbard, is perhaps king of the double dippers and AEA lays out a picture that is hard to ignore.

Hubbard is one of Auburn’s newer millionaires. His wife is on the payroll of Auburn University and he’s involved in more deals in Auburn and Opelika than both chambers of commerce combined.

In their bombastic charge against Hubbard, the School Journal says (yes, AEA has its own newspaper and 104,000 readers) “Trouble is Mike Hubbard is the largest double-dipper of them all.

Hubbard is now a sponsor of a bill that would prohibit educators from serving in the legislature labeled the “End of Double-Dipping Act.”

Well, technically I don’t suppose that Rep. Hubbard is an educator-legislator combo, but he’s has made his recent fortune off Auburn University with deals worthy of a second look. He came to Auburn not too many years ago as an employee in the sports information office. Maybe that’s how he learned how deals are made.

In 1994, he had purchased a little radio station, formed the Auburn Network and in the blink of an eye was given a no-bid contract for all Auburn sports broadcasting rights.

He received a no-bid five-year extension of that contract in 1997, and a year later won a seat in the legislature.

But wait, there’s more. Using his new powers, he pushed through the legislature a bill exempting Auburn athletics from the state’s bid law. But wait, he also won passage of a law removing the five-year limit on Auburn contracts.

As I said, I side with Hubbard on having teachers pay a little more of their insurance cost, but I can’t deal with his charade about double-dipping while living high off our educational institutions.

A pretty good day’s work for the young lawmaker.

You could also throw in the $881,000 in printing he secured for Craftmaster Printers in Auburn. He and former coach Pat Dye are part owners of the printing company.

Paul Davis writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News. You may contact him at paul_Davis@charter.net