Vote Tuesday
But know who/what you're voting for and why. Here is a Madison County sample ballot:
http://blog.al.com/ht/2008/10/SampleBallot2008_09.pdf
If you plan to vote on any of those constitutional amendments, please read the full text. The sentence or 2 is often insufficient to know what's going on. Only the 1st amendment deals with the whole state. The full text for all 6 are linked below in order.
Amendment 1
2
3
4
5
6
There is more info to these amendments here
9 comments:
thanks
Thanks Clint, this is perfect. I have read through amendment one, and I still need a translation. What I gathered from it is that some oil revenue will be taxed and solely applied toward education.
The rest were silly, especially #4. I think I'm going to go annex something now.
jimspagg
Thanks Clint. I don't often take the time to read these amendments until I'm in the voting booth. Surely I'm not alone!
It would be nice, though, if the state provided some neutral, non-legislative-language explanation of these things so that the rest of the public might be better informed...too many people rely on talk radio and yard signs for this info.
oh and BTW everyone please check your polling place and registration online and make sure you weren't "cleaned" from the voter rolls for some typographical error or for having a name which looks familiar to that of a convicted felon...
it would really suck to show up tuesday to find yourself disenfranchised...
Yeah they are in legislative language which makes interpretation sometimes necessary. But biases often come with that so you need to read a few. The Alabama Trust Fund that was mentioned in Amendment 1 already exists. The off shore drilling taxes have been going to it for many years, and there are at least 10s of millions in it as of a few years ago. I don't think any agencies have been using the funds from that. However, some do get the money from the interest on that. Forever Wild, the state land trust organization, is one of them. The interest from the Alabama Trust Fund bought the Walls of Jericho property in Jackson County. This amendment proposes that school be able to use the actual trust fund money when they need it and to pay it back within a few years. Less money in the trust fund means less interest for those other organizations but less budget stress for the schools. You can read other opinions and interpretations for addition ideas that might influence how you vote on it, because those are pretty readily available.
yeah, there is more info available, but it is mostly slanted to the "right" ideological mind, where any kind of regulation or tax or gov't involvement of any kind is against the common free market religion.
As an alternative example, here is the official opinion of UAHuntsville:
On Sunday major newspapers across Alabama carried an article written by University of Alabama System Chancellor Dr. Malcolm Portera; Dr. Jay Gouge, President of Auburn; Mr. Bradley Byrne, Chancellor of the Two Year College System; and Dr. Joe Morton, State Superintendent of Education (k-12). These leaders of education at all levels from pre-K through Ph.D. strongly support passage of Amendment 1 on November 4. I join them in supporting this critical legislation. For an explanation of the amendment please read Gary Smith's eloquent explanation of the amendment at www.uah.edu/govrel.
I strongly encourage you to read the Chancellor's article reprinted below and to VOTE YES on Amendment 1 on November 4. You are well aware of the serious budget reductions UAHuntsville has experienced this year. If this amendment does not pass, we face an additionall 3%-6% budget cut in the current year. Please go vote and VOTE YES on amendment 1. Thank you.
President Dave Williams
Better yet change the stupid constitution in Alabama!!!
http://www.constitutionalreform.org/
We've been needing that for a while. At best amendment 1 is a patch, but it could be a temporarily pretty helpful patch.
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