Mike Hubbard: Education, general funds offer challenges

There is little doubt that the 2009 legislative session will be a difficult one on a number of fronts. The largest hurdle, however, will be crafting the education and general fund budgets with the revenue available.

Alabama, like the rest of the nation, is facing tough economic times. However, as Gov. Bob Riley said in his State of the State Address last Tuesday evening, we have faced tough economic times before. With fiscal discipline, an aggressive economic development strategy and more accountability in government, we helped put Alabama on the road to recovery. That is the same formula that will help Alabama emerge from this recession stronger than before.

The Republican legislative agenda for this session for the most part mirrors Riley’s agenda: fiscal discipline, aggressive economic development and more accountability in government.

The first item of business is to try and maintain the conservative budgets that Riley sent over to the legislature this week. As he said in his State of the State speech, at this point we don’t know what, if any, federal dollars will flow to the states as part of the stimulus package currently being debated in Congress. But this should not be an excuse to go on a spending spree.

We should take a conservative approach to spending without raising taxes. Higher taxes would only make a tough situation even more difficult for the people of Alabama.

In addition to passing a conservative budget, Republicans support new incentives to create more jobs, and a sweeping overhaul of Alabama’s ethics code.

One of the bills we’re proposing is being sponsored by Rep. DuWayne Bridges (R-Valley).  It is a back-to-work tax credit of $500 to encourage companies to hire unemployed workers. The sooner we get people off the unemployment rolls, the sooner we save on their unemployment benefits and the sooner they can provide for their families.

Judging from the number of their public officials recently convicted of felony charges, it should be obvious that we must put measures in place to restore confidence in our system. Along with the governor, Republicans in the Legislature are proposing the first comprehensive rewrite of our ethics laws since 1973. It’s designed to give citizens a clearer picture of the money being spent to influence public policy and public officials. And it requires full disclosure of everything spent by lobbyists on elected officials.

It ensures that all potential conflicts of interests are also fully disclosed. Public officials will have to divulge any ownership they have in, or contracts with, an entity that receives any state funds. It also requires this same level of disclosure for their spouses.

We are also proposing to give the Ethics Commission subpoena power to carry out its mission. And an attorney general or district attorney will be given a reasonable amount of time to either prosecute an ethics case or decline it.

It all seems perfectly reasonable, but I assure you it will not be easy to pass. In fact, I predict the Democrats will spend more time trying to legitimize illegal slot machines than working to pass Riley’s ethics reform package.

The 2009 legislative session will indeed be a difficult one, but a silver lining could be passing of more job-creating legislation, stronger ethics laws and an opportunity to make changes that result in a smaller and more efficient state government.

Rep. Mike Hubbard (R-Auburn) is the Minority Leader in the Alabama House of Representatives. He also serves as Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party.