Politics Talk Stuff

The 2014 Alabama Legislature Has A Explosive Ending

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My only question is, what happened to the Alabama Legislature that caused it to go down into flames.  The legislature was signing Kumbaya and actually passed Carly’s Law to allow UAB to do a study featuring oil from Marijuana.  It looked like things were still going great down in Montgomery, until the last day that is.  What caused the legislative session to go down in flames was over the Education Budget.  Governor Bentley wanted to give all education employees a 2% pay raise, which is well deserved.  Because teachers have gone through a lot!  From staying at school overnight with kids during the snowstorm, sponsoring a club before or after school hours, buying supplies out of their own money, and more!  They deserve as much pay as possible!

The Legislature did have some good bills they were working on passing.  Like reforming the Open Meetings Act, creating a database to enforce a debt limit on payday loans, keeping secret the suppliers of lethal injection drugs, keeping low-cost spay and neuter clinics from being closed down, and more.  The Alabama Legislature did pass some things, like more restrictive abortion measures, and selling the legislature to the highest “conservative” bidder.  And did someone from the Alabama Legislature plead guilty and agree to cooperate with the police?  I am willing to bet we will see some legislators arrested for corruption soon.  And with more legislators getting in trouble with the law, it will continue the embarrassment that is the Alabama Government.

What happened on Thursday night was weird.  The governor wanted to include a 2% percent pay raise for teachers and other education employees.  The House just passed the Education Budget and sent it off to the governor, but it was not good enough.  The Governor sent a pay raise amendment to the Senate, and once Del Marsh got word that the amendment was heading towards the Senate, Marsh moved to end the session, while other important bills were still in play.  The important part in this was the House was already done, so if the bill included a pay raise, it could not pass both houses.  Del Marsh blamed the governor for ending the session, and talked about what the legislature accomplished this session.  Hey, the legislature kept the court system in shambles and left the prison system in shambles and at risk for a government takeover, how nice!

The only thing education employees got was a small raise to only cover increased insurance costs.  And now with the Legislative session over, for now.  Lawmakers are off onto the campaign trail blaming President Obama for the troubles the state and country is in.  Instead of blaming themselves for the corrupt government in Alabama, they are going to blame Democrats running the Federal Government, is that right?  Here is what I think really happened.  Marsh and Hubbard did not want to vote on the 2% pay raise for teachers, so they took the easy way out and ended the session before the bill reached the floor.  If I was Governor Bentley, I would veto the Education Budget, and declare a special session!  I want to see how the Alabama Legislature would vote on a pay increase for teachers!

All of this is only going to give ammo to Del Marsh’s opponent in the Republican primary in June.  Steven Guede is running against Del Marsh in the Alabama Senate District 12 primary.  And the winner of this race will pretty much win the Senate seat, since a Democrat would never win here in Anniston.  Del Marsh got a target on his back after he refused to put up an anti Common Core bill during the session.  Now, every education employee has a target on Marsh’s back.  People who also supported low-cost spay and neuter clinics, setting up a payday loan database, and closing loopholes in Alabama’s Open Meetings Act also have a target on Marsh’s back.

Hey Del Marsh, instead of worrying about how Republicans should continue to ruin state government, why not worry about the welfare of you own district, which includes Anniston/Oxford.  If you have not watched the news lately, Anniston/Oxford has been getting body slammed with bad news.  For example, according to the Milken Institute and the list of 179 small metro areas, the Anniston / Oxford area is the second worst performing small metro area in America for 2013.  Also, according to population estimates from the US Census Bureau, Anniston/Oxford has been the 16th fasting shrinking metro in the nation since 2010.  Meaning, the metro area saw more deaths than births in 2013.  From 2010-2013, the Anniston/Oxford metro has loss close to 2,000 people, mostly cause there are no job opportunities here.

I can totally see this happen, because Governor Bentley is angry at Del Marsh and Mike Hubbard.  Have a company interested in moving or expanding in Alabama?  The governor can simply choose to ignore the Anniston/Oxford area as political payback.  And I would not blame him if he decided to do that.  For Steven Guede, who is running against Del Marsh, I think I just gave you some great ammo to use in your campaign.  Del Marsh is already running some campaign ads here in Anniston on Cable One.  And I don’t blame him, because he is going to have a lot of people against him in the upcoming election.  It will be interesting to see if Del Marsh survives the upcoming election.

Learn more about Steven Guede at: http://electstevenguede.com/

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