Name:   copperline - Subject:   The state budget crisis & Gov. Bentley Date:   9/5/2015 12:07:17 PM

The economy might be improving, but it's not booming... that's for sure.   Alabama remains sorely unattractive to major new industries for every reason except the state is willing to forgo taxing any large corporation that will relocate here.   Too bad our education system hasn't turned out the needed work force to appeal to those new, high-tech employers. 

However, I think the belief that the economy can suddenly lurch into full tilt, and that this will shortly produce plenty of government revenue AND wealth for everyone else.... is a ridiculous myth.   Nothing can happen quickly, except when you run out of money to operate.

I think the only criteria for getting elected in Alabama has been that a politician can mouth the words "no new taxes & less government", without ever thinking about what this means, where it will lead or how it will end.   We've been continuing services year after year by reducing one program after another.... starting mainly with entitlements, but now moving on to those programs used by the middle class taxpayers.   The stated belief in Montgomery is that all you have to do is keep cutting programs,  characterizing them as wasteful & inefficient, and critical state programs can continue to be down-sized.     Nobody gets elected around here while proposing to improve government services, only to eliminate them by starving their funds.  Nobody is considering whether their campaign slogan has become outdated & useless.

I think it's critical that we take a longer term view and think about something beyond simply cutting taxes and complaining about government inefficiency.   We need to have a bigger conversation about what government funding is for, how cutting taxes reduces matching federal funds and magnifies the effect of Montgomery's cut-backs, and just how far you can go to eliminate govenment spending based on the belief that doing so will magically boost private sector businesses, employment and the tax base.

October 1 is only four weeks away.