Jennifer Foster: Think critically about campaign promises you hear

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Johnson this week became the first candidate to sign a pledge to return more gasoline tax money to Madison County for road funding.

Ah, campaign gimmicks.

Candidates typically love things like this. They present easy opportunities to please groups of politically active voters. It’s the written equivalent of telling them what they want to hear.

But such gimmicks are rarely grounded in good policy.

Let’s use this road funding issue as an example.

Madison County is facing a growth explosion fueled by BRAC realignment over the next few years. As they should, local politicians want their infrastructure to keep pace with the growth. They are upset about a 2006 study that showed that for every dollar collected in their backyard, state legislators only return 53 cents for roads.

So, in a well-meaning but misguided attempt to catch up, they want the next governor to commit to upping that amount to 80 cents on the dollar for each year of his or her administration.

Think critically about this.

It’s an ill-advised move for candidates to so specifically commit to something so far in the future. Bill Johnson doesn’t know what unforeseen circumstances might present themselves in the next two years, let alone the next five. Pigeonholing himself this way is either reckless planning or worthless pandering.

Other road-funding revenue streams do exist. For example, since BRAC realignment is a federal initiative, Alabama’s congressional delegation has a responsibility to help meet the needs they created. You’ve heard of unfunded mandates – when government entities establish new requirements and don’t provide funding for them? This is a classic example.

Statewide revenue streams exist to help level out counties’ abilities to meet their needs. The gasoline tax provides for road projects throughout Alabama: Marion County in west Alabama, for example, gets back $4.38 for every $1 in gas taxes collected there. (I doubt Johnson is going to go to Marion County and tell those folks they’re out of luck if he wins, but that’s basically what he’s done by signing the pledge.)

But Marion County isn’t the tourist destination that Madison County is. It doesn’t have the diversified economy that Madison County does. It doesn’t have the resources that larger cities do. So the gas tax helps them plug the gap. Yes, that means some counties have to “donate” if others are to benefit. But those are the brakes – er, breaks.

Madison County isn’t powerless in this process. Its state legislative delegation has an equal shot at that money. Its BRAC-related growth began in 2005. What does it say about the delegation’s performance and advocacy that they were only getting 53 cents on the dollar for their communities’ pressing transportation needs a full year into the process?

Local officials aren’t powerless, either. County commissioners could establish a half-cent or penny gasoline tax or hotel tax of their own. They would collect it, they wouldn’t have to share it with anyone and they would have the power to distribute it to the projects where it is most needed. Interstate 65 runs right through Madison County; a local tax would level out the burden among residents and tourists and capitalize (get it? capitalize?) on the resources those citizens have at their disposal. The cities of Auburn and Opelika have done this with sales taxes.

But they don’t seem to want to take the heat for raising taxes, even if it is for a legitimate purpose. So you might call their us-or-them approach passing the “buck.”

As Campaign 2010 progresses, think critically about what you hear. Signing a pledge is easy. Governing is not.

Jennifer Foster is a political enthusiast who lives in Auburn and writes a column for the Opelika-Auburn News. She can be reached at jefoster1@bellsouth.net